Reaching Barsey, through Rain and Hail

ANUPA RAI
WITH A YEAR having passed since the ‘green caps’ took over Singba [in North Sikkim] with the then acting Governor, MK Narayan, inaugurating the International Rhododendron Festival, time has come for its concluding phase. Well, what would have been a more apt spot than the Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary as the venue for a send off to the yearlong IRF in Sikkim?
A walk from Hilley to Barsey on 12 April thus began high on energy and riding on expectations, only to be dulled by the persistent rain which inundated the entire hike. On Ram Nawami, Barsey remained soaked with thunder showers and intermittent hailstones. The recently widened trekker’s trail connecting Hilley to Barsey was worst for the rain, with the rushing water bringing down fresh mud to layer the cemented trail. Progress was sluggish.

Even as a media team sloshed through the rain and sludge towards Barsey, the locals trudged downhill towards Hilley to attend the Ram Nawami programme there. A clutch of tourists waited it out there as well, hoping the rain would call off its run. Meanwhile, some who were headed for Hilley also changed their plans and continued on to Barsey. The only reward for those who roughed it out on that day was the relief of having reached the thankfully dry rest house. To further dampen the mood was the already noticeable lack of Rhododendrons in bloom in this sanctuary marked out for the blazing blooms.
Man Maya from Gyalshing, who landed at Barsey with no prior plans, complained, “Phool ta chaina rahecha, pani ma maatra bhijnu paryo” [“there are no flowers around, just got drenched for nothing”], even as her eyes searched for rhododendrons in bloom.
The entire trail, in fact the entire forest, is teeming with rhododendron trees, most of which are still bare. There were still the odd blooms around, and all one could do was imagine what a Barsey in form must look like when a forest official commented: “This time, only one fourth of the flowers are in bloom”.
For first-timers to Barsey, the fact that the rest house has no power supply was another shock; even the solar lamps which once lit up the compound now just out-of-place decorative eyesores.
The best reward of the day was the comfort of a dry bed next to the fireplace, with the kitchen staff indulgent enough to keep a conversation going even as they kept the fire blazing.
Pusai, one of the cooks informed that spring had overlooked more than 50% of the rhododendrons this year. The same trees had bloomed across Sikkim a month in advance last year… Climate change??
Meanwhile, Birendra, an SMIT student who had trekked up from Soreong in a group of 10, said, “I have visited this place before and I see much fewer flowers this time”.
His group had been camped at the forest lodge for the last 4 days, kept indoors by the rains, the worst of which opened up on Ram Nawami. They headed back early the next day, which was unfortunate because the clouds parted on 13 April, sending down sun rays streaming into the sanctuary, racing through the rhododendron boughs and illuminating the forest to its captivating beauty, the absence of blooms notwithstanding.
As we made our way back, more tourists could be seen making their way up to the sanctuary, intimidated, I thought, by the stern warnings which line the trail, some placards sending down curses on “hands which dared pluck flowers and plants” from this protected space.
The weather played foul with us, but it was also gracious enough to open views which continue to stun on every recall. No wonder, despite the inclement weather, tourist traffic to Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary remains unaffected.