How to reach, what to see and local specialties, Patnitop—a short trip from Jammu
Location and distance
My friend lived in Jammu for many years and then moved
to Himachal. Now we were his guests at his Jammu house. It took us roundabout 2
hours to reach Patnitop by road from Jammu. We were not in a hurry, but also
the pace was not very slow. He handled his small well travelled car with great
ease like a seasoned driver on mountain roads. Here the roads in the Himalayas
are not easy to negotiate without lots of courage and experience. He had both.
We had a taste when returning from Khajjiar through Jyot. Some of that route I
will remember for a long time for the sheer beauty of the twisting and turning
high altitude Himalayan road.
The distance of Patnitop from Jammu by road is about
110 kms. Being the national highway NH-1A from Jammu to Srinagar, Kashmir, the
road condition was very good. From Jammu the first major wayside point we
passed through was Udhampur which has also the major railway station carrying
the same name. At least nine trains from Jammu either pass through or terminate
at Udhampur. This is the nearest railway
station from Patnitop, the nearest airport being at Jammu. The distance to
Udhampur by road is about 65 kms and the area is mostly flat. My friend could
maintain a good speed along this stretch.
The next major wayside point was Kud and distance by
road from Udhampur about 35 kms. Ghat road or hilly road had already
started shortly after Udhampur as Kud altitude is about 6000 feet just short of
Patnitop by a mere 500 feet. The distance from Kud to Patnitop is also a short
one—about 10 kms. Effectively half the distance to Patnitop is flat and half
hilly. But the ghat road here does not have much steep rise or sharp
twists and turns. The surrounding hills have gentle curves as also the road
hugging the side of the hills.
From Kud to Patnitop is a very short distance as also
the rise in altitude.
I gathered that the name 'Patnitop' is derived from
the original name of the place, ‘Patan Da Talab’ or ‘Pond of the Princess’. Perhaps
a princess used to bathe in a lake in the meadows in forgotten times. Indeed we
saw a small stretch of water downhill at a place.
Patnitop falls in the district of Udhampur which is a
major one in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Patnitop altitude is about 6500
feet. Near Kud—Patnitop flows the Chenab river and the nearby town is Batote.
The hill is relatively flat at Patnitop allowing the beautiful hill station to
be built.
Stay at Patnitop
We stayed at the Patnitop
Guest house which is beautiful and was under expansion.
 |
| New facilities |
The
compound was old with a wide grass lawn in front. Being on a flat top, it
commands a far view also. Varieties of trees, specially at the back of the
compound make the place more attractive. This giant of a tree impressed us
greatly. We have never seen such a tree. Perhaps it is a baobab.
 |
| Top of Baobab |
On one
side of the compound, chaotic multicolored flower bed looked perfectly natural
in its beauty. Tukai looked from the top and the flowers seemed to have been
sprinkled all over the bed, unorganized.
 |
| Flowers sprinkled |
To me natural beauty is order in disorder.
Lots of old and young
high altitude trees around the compound provide the green background. Sometimes
I like only the tree trunks knowing that the trunks still have a living body.
Four young vied with the old to reach the sky.
 |
| Tree trunks |
Apart from this beautiful Patnitop Guest House, there
are about two dozen good hotels spread around the area—they are not clustered. To
us Patnitop seemed to be unoccupied, but it actually is a town but a spread out
town merging with the nature around.
Being
a specialist in qualitative evaluation I refrain from evaluating the hotels
listed below. These are gleaned from information in public domain. It is up to
you to choose a hotel suitable to your requirements and budget. I might have missed one or two and there is no special significance in the order of this listing.
Hotels at Patnitop
1.
Hotel Vardaan Resorts:
Modern facilities.
2.
Hotel Hoilday Inn: Modern
facilities
3.
Hotel Asia the Oasis
Resorts: Modern facilities.
4.
Hotel Green Top: Modern
facilities.
5.
Hotel Jai Skahan: Modern
facilities.
6.
Hotel Samson: Modern
facilities.
7.
Patnitop Heights: Modern
facilities.
8.
Hotel Forest View: Modern
facilities.
9.
Hotel Mount Shivalik:
Modern facilities.
10.
Hotel Trinetar Resorts:
Modern facilities.
11.
Hotel Subhash Palace:
Modern facilities.
12.
Hotel Jayshree: Modern
facilities.
13.
Hotel New Broadway: Modern
facilities.
14.
Hotel Aroma Top: Modern
facilities.
15.
Hotel Himalaya View:
Modern facilities.
16.
Shiva Cottage: Modern
facilities.
17.
Hotel Sushant: Modern
facilities.
18.
Hotel Savera: Modern
facilities.
19.
Hotel Dogra Residency:
Modern facilities.
20.
Arrav Villa: Modern
facilities.
21.
Hotel Dreamland: Modern
facilities.
22.
Hotel Hollywood: Modern
facilities.
23.
Hotel Mount View: Modern
facilities.
Patnitop
is surrounded by softly curved meadows and valleys much of which has been
denuded of its rich variety of trees.
 |
| Thinning tree cover |
But
wherever the hill rose straight up, it still could retain thick green cover at
some places. Human hand didn’t erase the soothing green to drab grey of bare
hillside.
 |
| Green cover |
Humans in
every region of the world have played their part in different times of history
to cut away the trees mercilessly, embellishing the civilized world with
artifacts. A partly natural artifact caught my eye because of its human like
form.
 |
| Tree art |
Local livelihood
As
far as I could gather there is no mechanized industry in this area because of
the hilly terrain and remoteness. The villages spread along the hillsides are
mainly sustained by terrace farming and tending herds of goats and sheep. Seasonal
crops are mainly tomato, garlic and maize.
The ground here is
practically devoid of undergrowth and the open hillsides are undulating grasslands
for grazing the sheep and goat.
 |
| Undulating grassland |
I laughed aloud when my friend told me the local name
of the turns of the hilly road. Some of the larger turns with a good space are
called टमाटर मोड़ (or tomator
more in Hindi) where locals sit with baskets of fresh tomatoes to sell to
the passengers in the passing cars. Being on the national highway from Jammu to
Srinagar they should be doing good business by their standards.
A
local specialty of Kud is the mithai (sweets) Patissa made of बेसन (beson: gram-flour) and ghee. The other one is Kaladi
which can be described as a kind of paneer ki roti —a dairy based
product.
Places to see around
My
friend mentioned three places around as a must see for a tourist. We were not
usual tourists and had no pressure to visit the tourist spots. The first is the
Shudh Mahadeo Temple, a temple of Mahadeo Shiv 18 kms from Kud. The second is
the Sanasar Lake about 20 kms from Patnitop. A lake amongst the green meadows
must be very beautiful. And the third is the Natha Top maybe about 15 kms from
Patnitop. We will talk about Natha Top when we take up our snow point again.
Activities
The
area having good tree covers away from the villages and habitations, a number
of good trekking options are available from Patnitop along with trekking
equipment arrangements. All trekking routes are open during the summer season,
but some of the routes are open in winter also. On the routes of trekking good
camping sites also seem to be available.
When
heavy snow accumulates on the slopes Skiing courses are conducted at Patnitop
in the months of January and Feburary.
Lastly Aerosports such as Paragliding can be done at Sanasar Lake and from Nathatop I was
told.
Snow point
Instead of visiting
the usual tourist points we made merry at snow point where we could still get
some snow cover in April. It was fast disappearing but was still there for us.
That was our main attraction.
 |
| Snow cover |
I came to
know later that the snow point was located on the road to Nathatop only.
 |
| Snow Point on the Road to Nathatop |
The
locals told us that this was the only place where some snow cover was still
left. The condition of the road was not very good specially because of the
snow. Along this stretch embankments have been used to arrest landslides but
the snow still had taken its toll.
 |
| Snow toll on the road |
The
villagers mainly commute on foot along this road and then take the trail uphill
or downhill where their village lay. This road is their lifeline.
 |
| Village woman |
The
hilltops all around are totally denuded of tree cover, possibly because every
winter they are covered with thick snow. Downhill the meadows retains still a
few clumps of trees but it is only a matter of time for them also to disappear
I felt.
 |
| Denuded hilltops |
The
hilltops all around are totally denuded of tree cover, possibly because every
winter they are covered with thick snow. Downhill the meadows retains still a
few clumps of trees but it is only a matter of time for them also to disappear
I felt.
Parting words
I had
visited many hill stations in this country—mostly the renowned ones. That’s
what we do. I feel that the modest, left alone and relatively unknown Patnitop
gave me deep pleasures that lasted. Perhaps the reason was its apparently
unspoilt natural views with few visible localities and soft gentle curves all
around. The seclusion and softness might be a good attraction for couples and
for honeymooners, I felt.
To
me Patnitop will remain to be a special little gem. Perhaps that was the reason
why I chose first Patnitop leaving aside such stars as Khajjiar, Dalhousie and
Dharamsala when I had started to tell you this story.
Links
Links
1. Jammu and Kashmir Tourist Development Corporation: http://jktdc.in/destinations/patnitop.html
2. Patnitop Development Authority: http://patnitop.nic.in/
3. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patnitop
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