hills

West Bengal·railway · hills

As one drives from Darjeeling, along the tracks of the quaint toy train, towards the plains around Bagdogra, the crowded street-side homes and shops and the vehicles on the road, all vie for space with the toy train and its tracks, and pede…

farmland · hills

Peach, nectarine, M9 apple and apricot harvest at a Nainbagh - Ghorapkuri fruit orchard in western Himalaya's Uttarakhand state, along the Yamuna river valley.

river · hills

The Naga waterfall plunges down steep rocks, thundering and crashing its way to the valley floor, in Sikkim. The foam that is created from the roaring waters is just something else.

flowers · hills

Set against a misty high altitude monsoon cloud meadow, with a stream lower down the valley, this view of bunches of flowering yellow poppies is indeed a wild Himalayan magical sight! Meconopsis paniculata is a brilliant showy deep yellow h…

river · hills

Lachung valley is subject to rockfall risk at the edges, thanks to the tall towering rock faces on both sides of the valley, and the volatile rock and water movement therein.

river · hills

The blue-green glacial icy melt waters and the Inula daisies in flower along the shores of this high altitude trans Himalayan lake make for an other-worldly vision of the old India with a Himalaya that was unsullied.

hills · flowers

Primula (not sikkimensis) and Inula daisy fields of flowers in north Sikkim 17th June 2022, between Thangu and Gurudongmar, as seen near the army encampment, along the Lachen Chhu or the nascent Teesta river.

hills · highway

What a lovely valley one comes across before the climb to Kalapathar, on the left! A wide open green well watered valley that could well have been the wintering or summer breeding grounds for Black-necked Cranes, but for some strange reason…

flowers · hills

Said to be one of the most beautiful flowers in the world - the Blue Poppy can be seen here growing at 15, 500 feet altitude in summer in north Sikkim, India.

Uttarakhand·flowers · hills

Bunches of run-wild Crocuses have taken over our early monsoon late summer hillsides at the Jabbarkhet botanical gardens of wildfilmsindia, overlooking the plains and the higher mountains of the Himalaya, as garden escapes that have got nat…

hills

Why is the skin flaking off this Agama's back? The spots give it camouflage. Why is it breathing so prominently and heavily, we wonder? Laudakia tuberculata: Found from 790m to 3900m above sea level these Lizards are normally seen in open r…

festival · hills

More a male bonding fest and a cultural practice than a fishing festival, but riverine plunder, nonetheless. Every fish caught is proudly displayed, even if it is still and should have been left to breed.

birds · hills

Deep blue bird catches evening light sitting on a Himalayan Cedar or deodar branch, and looks deceptively like a different bird but is really a Verditer Flycatcher in the Himalay, at our wildfilmsindia sanctuary in Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand·birds · forest

This cute little thrush looks such a pretty site among the white flower clumps of this shrub in Jabbarkhet, Mussoorie, at the wildfilmsindia sanctuary.

hills

This poor Stag Beetle has got onto its back, and cannot right itself, even as a Common Hill Partridge or Peora calls across the valley.

hills · river

Braided river channel with multiple tributaries, channels and dis-tributaries! How green is my valley! One wonders if these green rice paddy fields will be turned into grotesque buildings with dhabas and hotels, homes for plains-people and…

hills · birds

With the little tuft of feathers above the orange beak, the Jungle Myna is unmistakable in its new habitat in the middle Himalaya. They have moved up from the plains and are now stealing nest-holes from the milder hill birds.

hills · aerial

Andie village and the neightbourhood of the Nag Tibba trail, with a thick blanket of winter snow on the cedar forests of Nag Tibba. Nainbagh - Ghorakhuri belt below Nag Tibba mountain in the Yamuna valley, as seen from the air

hills · highway

Chakrata town in Uttarakhand is a lovely hill station, but long forgotten and ignored except for its Rajma beans, thanks to the Army presence here, including that of Establishment 21, a force to protect Tibet and the Indian Tibet border.

hills · birds

This super cheery singer songster is the Grey-winged Blackbird, while it's more dapper and colourful forest-mate is the Verditer Flycatcher which makes it a point to sign from high dead branches, to make its presence felt.

festival · hills

Every fish caught is proudly displayed, even if it is still and should have been left to breed. These men are killing fish for entertainment.

Mussoorie, Uttarakhand·farmland · hills

See us harvest the best of the peonies from our wildfilmsindia Pari Tibba Estate at Motidhar in Mussoorie. Many varieties of peony have flowered at the summer-time peak of warmth and good weather.

flowers · hills

See how the pollen has amply dusted off on the back of this beetle which feeds within a Crocus or Rain Lily bloom at the wildfilmsindia botanical arboretum in Uttarakhand.