Devprayag: Holy Ganga starts from here

Devprayag:

Devprayag, a town in Uttarakhand, India, at 630 meters is a religious historic town, the city of 'gods', the originating place of the sacred river Ganga, the confluence of Bhagirathi and Alaknanda, settled in 14th century by religious heads landed from southern India, callled 'jajmans' who would take their devotees to 'char dham yatra' and to Badrinath and Kedarnath for another 6 months travail on foot journey to worship.

A small town, a Degree college, a Tehsil, a Panchayat managed town ( Chairman is JP Pandit the ever eager smiling gentleman), still run by rich and influential 'pandas' where labor is supplied by nearby villages or bordering Nepal. Nearest ATM or hospital is 36 kms ahead in the town of Srinagrar or 65 kms back in Rishikesh. A town where there is no meat or liquor sale. On the town borders you can buy meat and cook yourself.

A busy bus stand, a single petrol pump, it has one high end hotel for about R2300 a night, three medium hotels at the entrance of the hotel at R500/night ( one clean and well managed is Pious Ganga run by KK Kotiyal), one nice R340/night GMVN govt run hotel, and few others. Food is at 'dhabas' or at hotel restaurants.

People are honest. District hq is Pauri 2 hrs away. Water is by town or from hand pumps installes on the main road corners which is a national highway now. State's scary news of every alternate day is -2/3 people dead in automobiles falling down (strangely local bus or taxis never involved) from risky mountain roads, 3/4 villagers killed by leopard, 2/3 by slipping down in the gorge while tending their daily life like cutting grass, one leopard killed by villagers every 20 days or so and police immediately arresting him. Dogs are kept indoors in room at night not to be made late night dinner for jungle cats, where woman carry 40kgs bags on their heads and walk to 500 mts high house on mountains. A few city dwellers have reached the town seeking peace and life away from city hassles. One is engineer Naresh Sharma who lived in Australia for 26 years, now building a glass house nearby at Saat Dhaara,
a 'dhaba town' midway. Another IAS couple lives on the river banks.

One NGO-Live For Others Foundation has started a mission of cleaning Deoprayag of garbage/plastics/ animal waste and make it as the first garbage free town of the country. Will also set up a girl-child family home for kids to provide them a family living and education. A woman cottage industry to tailor cotton hanging bags as souvenir sale has been started under the management of Malti Rawat. English speaking course for degree students has been started to help them qualify in job interviews with Delhi, Gurgaon employers.