Discover The Tons Valley

Tons Trails is a social enterprise bringing economic development through tourism to communities in the remote Tons Valley in Uttarakhand, India

[Discover The Tons Valley @TonsTrails]

Morning scenes with little guests getting the Gucchi Chewie Lala experience 🥰

[Anand Sankar @saybwala]

Monday morning scenes 😍

Nice crisp early winter weather is here!

[Discover The Tons Valley @TonsTrails]

On the Nomad Trail for the last decade, @kalapian_ pens down some observations and thoughts from life of the shepherds of the Tons Valley 🌻

[Anand Sankar @saybwala]

Penned down some observations and thoughts from following shepherds in the upper Tons Valley for the last decade+ in today's @DeccanHerald. It was quite hard to pen down everything and stick to a word limit.

Probably will share more about these experiences in the future.

Shout out to @Barkha2803 for chasing me since June to write this. She got the idea to make me do this when I wrote an earlier article for DH on life in the Tons Valley. There was no space to fit this 'working with the shepherds part' back then.

It's been a personal project to document the lives of shepherds through photographs. I have shared very little of this documentation so far publicly. Also, it is slightly special for me that for 11 years I have done this documentation using just one dinky point and shoot and later various mobile phones. I was a photographer with big SLRs around my neck. I sold all my gear in 2013 and went light weight. I feel big cameras intimidate your subject. Quality of images is not something I find restricting on small sensors as I concentrate on superior composition. Make the frame work for you not the sensor I say. That big picture on top was shot with a cheap Motorola G-series phone in 2017 and it has managed to stretch wide on a broadsheet in 2024.

The picture with the ball of cheese in hand is very special, as it is the late father of my staff Gyan Singh. Jayender, a 'retired' shepherd used to be part of hikes with us on 'The Nomad Trail' @TonsTrails . Sadly passed away at just 55 suddenly due to a cardiac arrest in 2022.

Link to read: https://t.co/KUY0jK8y2E

[Anand Sankar @saybwala]

Many @TonsTrails guests want to stay with us for a night when on a trip to hang out with our 🐕 🐕🐕 s. So we setup these tents on our verandah terrace.

Lovely weather, doing a BBQ (veg only) tomorrow evening. 😍

[Discover The Tons Valley @TonsTrails]

Deets about the first batch of our Nomad Trail in May here btw:

https://t.co/MTBMMAMj37

[Discover The Tons Valley @TonsTrails]

Our annual summer special 'The Nomad Trail' and it's high-altitude version+ our 'no-hiking' Tons Heritage Trail in today's @livemint
Lounge!

https://t.co/N3Ss2rzbsh

[Historywali @historywali]

Buda and Budi’s - that’s Ujjwal Singh & Bajuri Devi’s Harvest of Organic, Crisp, Cherry Red Apples is up for takes on https://t.co/N4BOr7dXCF (hit the organic apples link) over the next 3-4 days or till stock lasts. Get yourself a box?
These are my favourite Apples. 🍎

[Historywali @historywali]

Buda and Budi have never sold their apples before, they’d keep their harvest for family, for the villagers, send a sack over to us, but this year, there’s been a sweet little bumper harvest that we’re helping them send out to all corners of the country.

[Historywali @historywali]

The Apples though are legendary in the Valley. That deep red. And now what’s truly special is that this Apple Harvest is up for sale for the VERY FIRST TIME, yup.

[Historywali @historywali]

More context. There is no motorable road to Kalap/Karba. So when the Apple harvest does happen, the apples must be carried 6 hours down one mountain, across a stream with a pulley, and up another mountain to the closest road, on mules.

[Historywali @historywali]

Everyone moves downhill to Kalap for the winter. Everyone except Buda & Budi. They stay back, snowed in with no way to communicate with the rest of the world (no phones don’t work, and the path to Karba is snowed in) to tend to their Apple trees and guard them from Langurs.

[Historywali @historywali]

This first image is from right after we got engaged when @kalapian_ took me up to Karba to meet Buda & Budi. Others are from early days when he’d camp in their tiny but cozy and welcoming home (yeah that’s the door to their home in pic 3, Anand has to crawl in and out obvs). 🤍

[Historywali @historywali]

If you’ve been around for a while, you know Buda and Budi - our mountain parents - they make an appearance often on mine & @kalapian_’s feeds. This image too will be familiar.

[Discover The Tons Valley @TonsTrails]

We have some apples close to our heart on sale over at @tonsvalleyshop

Read on to know why they are special 🥰

[Historywali @historywali]

If you’ve been around for a while, you know Buda and Budi - our mountain parents - they make an appearance often on mine & @kalapian_’s feeds. This image too will be familiar.

[Tons Valley Shop @tonsvalleyshop]

This is a box with 25 handpicked pears sleeping cosy for their journey ahead.

You have one such box delivered to you if you order immediately from, https://t.co/EYhY0pt6rF

We have only some 160 boxes still left in stock, if you hurry you can snap one up!

[Tons Valley Shop @tonsvalleyshop]

These bucket full of pears are heading into our processing centre to be packed into small boxes to be sent to all corners of India.

https://t.co/EYhY0pt6rF

[Tons Valley Shop @tonsvalleyshop]

This is famer Negi's son, who is already climbing trees to pluck pears for customers who have been ordering boxes from all over India since today morning.

https://t.co/EYhY0pt6rF

[Tons Valley Shop @tonsvalleyshop]

In case you have never tried pears from our own Himalayas, farmer Devender Singh Negi tells you why you must buy!

https://t.co/EYhY0pt6rF

[Tons Valley Shop @tonsvalleyshop]

This freshly harvested pear can be nestling in your palm. It has been nurtured by winter snow, spring sun and now cool summer rain to give you the perfect crunch!

https://t.co/EYhY0pt6rF

[Tons Valley Shop @tonsvalleyshop]

Say hello to fresh & crisp pears from the upper Tons Valley in Uttarakhand!

Did you know they can be home with you in less than 4 days?

https://t.co/EYhY0pt6rF

[Discover The Tons Valley @TonsTrails]

It's summer fruit season in our Tons Valley in Uttarakhand and @tonsvalleyshop has some fresh crisp pears for you! Orchard to home in under 4 days guaranteed!

https://t.co/r9xvsXJT0I

[Tons Valley Shop @tonsvalleyshop]

Say hello to fresh & crisp pears from the upper Tons Valley in Uttarakhand!

Did you know they can be home with you in less than 4 days?

https://t.co/EYhY0pt6rF