Sunday, 22 OCTOBER 2023 | PRADEEP BHANDARI | JOSHIMATH
The Valley of Flowers in Chamoli district is set to be closed to the public on October 31. The number of visitors to this destination this year has so far been less compared to the previous year. The officials state that this is because of the heavy rain alerts issued during the monsoon this year. According to official data, about 13,000 tourists have visited the Valley of Flowers from June 1 till recently this year whereas more than 20,000 tourists had visited the valley last year.
The Valley of Flowers is opened to visitors each year on June 1 and closed on October 31. Generally, the arrival of visitors to the valley peaks during the months of July and August. This is the period when more than 300 species of flowers are in bloom in the valley. However, the arrivals were affected by the heavy rain alerts issued during the monsoon. In the past five years, the highest number of people had visited the Valley of Flowers in 2022. Officials state that this year the weather frequently remained inclement during the months of March and April due to which the number of visitors could not pick up at the start itself. However, there has been a rise in the number of foreign visitors. Nanda Devi national park divisional forest officer BB Martoliya stated that the comparatively more heavy rain alerts issued this year caused the number of visitors to drop. According to official data, a total of 13,000 people have visited the Valley of Flowers so far this year, out of which 394 were foreigners. A total of 20,827 people had visited the valley in the previous year with 280 of them being foreigners.
