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Villagers return to abandoned Himalayan homes after 60 years

KANIKA SINGH RATHORE, 15/10/202515/10/2025

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The once bustling border village of Martoli lies within UttarakhandJohar Valley, now largely inhabited ruinsIts stone buildings are reminiscent of a bygone era.

surrounded by royalty Himalaya With peaks including Nanda Devi, once considered the world’s highest, this northern Indian settlement thrived on cross-border trade.

Historically, Martoli exchanged sugar, pulses, spices and cloth with Tibetan communities in exchange for salt and wool.

Its nomadic inhabitants spent the winter in the plains, gathering goods for their summer expeditions across the border.

Kishan Singh, right, and Vijay Singh plucking buckwheat in Martoli village

Kishan Singh, right, and Vijay Singh plucking buckwheat in Martoli village ,Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.,

However, this vibrant way of life came to a sudden halt in 1962 when an armed conflict broke out between India And China The border was sealed, leaving high altitude areas devastated villages And giving its residents little reason to return.

Kishan Singh, who was 14 when he moved with his family to settle in the lower village of Thal, still returns to Martoli every summer to plow the land and grow grains, strawberries and black cumin.

Even at the age of 77, his face is smiling and rosy.

His ancestral house does not have a roof, so he sleeps in a neighbour’s abandoned house for six months to make ends meet and farm for himself in this village.

An aerial view shows an abandoned village

An aerial view shows an abandoned village ,Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.,

“I like living in the mountains and the land here is very fertile,” he says.

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In late autumn, he hires mules to carry his crop to his home on the plains so he can sell it at a modest profit.

The largest villages in the Johar Valley contained about 1,500 people at their peak in the early 1960s.

Martoli had about 500 people at the time, while some of the dozen owned 10 to 15 houses.

Lichen grows on the stone walls of a structure in the abandoned village of Martoli

Lichen grows on the stone walls of a structure in the abandoned village of Martoli ,Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.,

Now about three or four people return to Martoli every summer.

Some villagers are returning to the nearby villages of Laspa, Ghanghar and Rilkot in the summer because they can now travel in vehicles within a few kilometers (miles) of their villages on a recently constructed unpaved road.

Amidst the scattered remains of earlier stone houses at Martoli, a new guesthouse has grown up to serve the few trekkers passing through the village on their way to Nanda Devi Base Camp.

Uk abandonedHimalayanhomesreturnVillagersyears

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