Nanda Devi Raj jaat Yatra 2014 : Uttarakhand Devbhoomi

Nanda Devi Raj Jaat Yatra is a festival that stretches for whole three weeks. It is one such Uttarakhand festival that is globally famous. Innumerable people participate in Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra from the Garhwal-Kumaon region, the rest of the country.

Goddess Nanda Devi is a popular deity at many places of Garhwal & Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. Nanda Devi Raj Jat is organised once in every 12 years in Chamoli after royal priests' descendents and the Kunwar royal family make elaborate preprations in the village of Nauti and in Kansuwar respectively. It is primarily a religious pilgrimage spanning for 280 kilometer. The trek takes about 20 days to be completed.

This Raj jat yatra originates from the Nauti village 20 km of Karnaprayag tehsil of Indian state of Uttarakhand. The Kunwar of village Kansua inaugurates the ceremony. The legend is this that Nanda Devi, consort of Lord Shiva left her village and went to the nanda devi parbat. Therefore when the yatra starts, heavy rain occurs as if the devi is crying. This yatra covers many villages and in between the Devi meets her sister in the Bhagwati village.

This yatra is very tough on account the landscape it goes through. In between the yatra there comes a Lake Roopkund where lies the hundreds of skeletons. It is said that once the King took some dancers to this sacred place due to which heavy snow fell and people died and the dancers got transformed into stone which can be sen in Patarnachonia. The other myth is this that king Yasodhwal's wife was pregnant and while she was giving birth to her child, her placenta flowed down to Roopkund and this in turn caused the death of the people on that place. That is why the river Nandakini lost her significance and the Nandprayag is not considered sacred as the other Panch Prayags like Devprayag, Vishnuprayag, Karanprayag and Rudraprayag.

How to reach

By Air :  

• If you want to attend Nanda devi Raj Jat yatra in 2013, nearest airport are jolly Grant Airport Dehradun in Garhwal and Pantnagar in Kumaun region of Uttarakhand.
  
  

  By Rail : 

  The nearest railway stations are Rishikesh in Dehradun District, Haridwar, Dehradun and Kotdwar in Pauri distict in Garhwal . If you want to go from kumaun than nearest railway stations is Kathgodam near Haldwani.Other station is Tanakpur where trains comes from Bareli.
  

• By Road : 

  If you want to go by bus than chamoli distict is well connected with dehradun, haridwar and Rishikesh .From Kumaun Chamoli distict is connected with Rudrapur, Ramnagar and Tanakpur. Main station of this Yatra is Karanprayag which is connected with Garhwal and Kumaun. We can also attend the yatra from Chandpur gadi, Ujwalpur, Nandkesari and Tharali.These are the night hault of this Yatra.
  
  

  Nanda Devi Raj Jaat Night Hault

  Night Hault Information of Nanda Devi Raaj Jat Yatra

  No.	Night Hault	Distance(km)
  1	Nauti to Eda Bandhani	10
  2	Eda Bandhani to Nauti	10
  3	Nauti to Kansuwa	7.5
  4	Kansuwa to Sem	17.3
  5	Sem to Koti	12
  6	Koti to Bhagoti	11.5
  7	Bhagoti to Kulsari	15.4
  8	Kulsari to Chepdue	10.8
  9	Chepdue to NandKesari	4.7
  10	NandKesari to Faldiya	7.9
  11	Faldiya Gaun to Mundoli	7.7
  12	Mundoli to Vaan	20.2
  13	Vaan to Geroli Patal	6.8
  14	Geroli Patal to Patar Nachoniya	6.9
  15	Patar Nachoniya to Sila Samundra	3
  16	Sila Samundra to ChandniyaGhat	12.3
  17	ChandniyaGhat to Sutol	20.9
  18	Sutol to Ghat	18
  19	Ghat to Nauti	41.6

  Day 1 to 5 Yatra Details	Day 6 to 10 Yatra Details
  Day 11 to 15 Yatra Details	Day 16 to 19 Yatra Details