Locating Badolgaon

We all have this irresistible desire to know our roots, where we came from, how our ancestors looked like and how they ran their lives. We would like to screen the better aspects of their lives and purge the negatives to bask in reflected glory. As the flag line suggests we have indeed some past to be proud of chiefly because of an individual Pt Kedar Dutt kala, an acknowledged specialist in religious rituals ( Some say one of the only three very best of his time). So we begin our journey by locating tiny hamlet on on world map. It is not easy to locate a village on satellite image which has number of house you can count on your finger tips. Besides images of sparsely populated areas are on low resolution as compared to area of towns. So How did I locate Badolgaon on satellite image (Google Earth)? I began by mapping my journey from Kotdwara to Badolgaon on my GPS phone. Here are the screen shots..   




This is picture of full route from Kotdwara to Badolgaon. We began tracing route from 'Manyawar' Diwakar Kala's residence positioned at the lower end of map where legend Kotdwara can be seen. At midway you can see Duggada mentioned as well........  


(Tid Bit: श्री दिवाकर काला का फ़ोन ख़राब चल रहा था. जनाब ने बीएसएनएल को फ़ोन किया...
'मान्यवर' मेरा फ़ोन कई दिनों से खराब है, कृपया  उसे सुधार ने का कष्ट करें! )  Therefore the sobriquet 'Manyawar'.

From Duggada, which means confluence of two rivers, used to be an important distribution center in earlier times we go north to Hanumanti, Matiyali and on to a high Kandakhal having pleasant cool climate. MAtiyali has an old Inter College where some of the Chacha/Tau had education)

















   






Kandakhal is not quite shown in this map but it is a short way from left end of route shown in the image........Sharp hairpin affords breathtaking view of valley.






















You see a small hair pin in the middle of map, that is Kandakhal, a steep descent from there takes us to Paukhal which is at the end of appendix like protrusion ( a smudged extension visible on the map). Paukhal is end of metaled road for us although the road keeps going on to Hrishikesh, you take a jeep from here to Badolgaon, the road is actually a river bed called 'gadan' in local language.........  


















This entire route is covered by jeep. At the end of which is Village clusters. Malya, Mandai, Bijnor and of course Badolgaon.....






















You can see the dry river bed traced by jeep on satellite image...


























A Clearer and enlarged picture of valley. The lone spot is village temple.




















A more definitive image clearly showing the temple. The dwelling where route in smudged is Pannchayat Ghar, where most of the action took place.

Village Panoramic

Village Details