Himalayan hiking for beginners: birdlife and village stays in India's Kumaon Hills

04.10.2023 - 16:11 / nationalgeographic.com

It’s impossible to tell how big the black eagle really is until it alights on the oak tree in front of me, making the branches droop and creak as it clings to its perch like an elephant on a tightrope. With a wingspan of around three feet, this giant bird of prey is far less graceful on its talons than it was a moment ago, when it was gliding in broad arcs over the rippling green valley. As I clasp a cup of chai on a terrace 1,800 metres up in the Kumaon Hills, I’m close enough to see its peppercorn-coloured wing tips.

Hiking in the Himalayas is often framed around breathless high passes and unforgiving mountain faces draped in prayer flags — but here in India’s Himalayan foothills in Uttarakhand, surrounded by valleys of pine, oak and rhododendron forest, I’m experiencing a gentler side to Asia’s famous mountain range. Travellers come to this little-known corner near the Nepalese border not to bag peaks but to bag avian sightings.

The next morning, I meet local guide Deepak Joshi, who notes that the effects of climate change are being felt in the region. “Usually the migratory birds come back in April,” he says. “But this year they started coming back in February. It’s a big difference.” One of the founders of Village Ways walking company, Deepak joins me on the terrace of Khali Estate — a vine-draped former summer house built in the late 19th century by British commissioner Sir Henry Ramsay. 

After a hearty breakfast of aloo paratha (potato-stuffed fried flatbread), I prepare to set off on a village-to-village hike in search of more birds at Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary. Fleece zipped high around his neck in the cool morning air, Deepak has his thumb poised over the button of a DSLR camera, with which he’s recording Binsar’s extraordinarily concentrated birdlife. 

He tells me that despite the area only being 20 square miles, the reserve is renowned for its dense population of 200 bird species, including several types of eagles, woodpeckers and the giant Himalayan vulture. And, as climate change exerts pressure on India’s more southerly Western Ghats, Deepak says Village Ways’ specialist ornithology guides have seen more birdlife heading north, making the species diversity in these Himalayan hills richer than ever. 

I leave Deepak and am soon out on the 30 miles of trails corkscrewing through the reserve, connecting Khali Estate with five village guesthouses for community stays. My next guide, Hem Joshi, and I are heading for one in the village of Risal, via his home in Dalar. Pine needles on the forest ridge crunch underfoot, and I wonder if the noise will scare off all the wildlife. But with no cars and few houses in the sanctuary due to a ban on development within its boundaries, nature is bold. It