Kedarnath now, then and the landslide.

                                             kedarnath 

Kedarnath is the temple that was constructed about 1200 years ago. The temple got its name from King Kedar who had ruled during Satya Yuga. This temple is considered to be one of the most important amongst the four dham. This temple is located in Rishikesh, on the shores of river Mandakini at a height of 3,583 Meters which means 11,755 ft. according to Hindu mythology when the Pandavas killed their relatives during the war of Mahabharata to absolve of the sins Pandavas went on a pilgrimage to Kashi but lord Vishweshwara was away so they moved towards Himalayas. When the Pandavas reached there, Lord Shankara hid himself. After which Dharamraj asked lord to give darshan, once he will see them their sins will be washed off.  If you would do so the place where you are hiding will be known as Guptkashi and would be a famous shrine one day. They went in search of Lord Shankara from the Guptakashi (Rudraprayag), they went to Gaurikund in the Himalayan valleys.

 While searching for lord Nakul and Sahadev found a male buffalo which looked very unique. Then Bheema went after the buffalo with his mace. Bheema wanted to get hold of the buffalo but could not do so. He managed to hit the buffalo with his mace. The buffalo had its face hidden in a crevice-in the earth he started to pull it by its tail. The face of the buffalo went straight to Nepal in this tug-of war and few of its part were left in Kedar.

The part of Mahesha in Kedar, a JyotirLinga appeared. On seeing the light and Lord Shankara appeared. This way Pandavas got Darshan of Lord Shankara and the Pandavas were absolved of their sins. The Lord later told the Pandavas, “From now on, I will remain here as a triangular shaped JyotirLinga. The devotees would attain piety with Darshan of Kedarnath”. The tribals here perform a dance called “Pandav Nritya” in the memory of Raja Pandu who died at pandukeshwar.  The mountain from where the Pandavas went to Swarga, is known as “Swargarohini”, which is located at badrinath. When Dharmaraja was leaving for Swarga, one of his fingers fell on the earth. where Dharmaraj installed a Shiva Linga, which is of  the size of the thumb. To gain Mashisharupa, Shankara and Bheema fought with maces. This triangular Shiva JyotirLinga is massaged with ghee, Water and Bel leaves are used for worship. It is said when Bheema was struck with remorse. He started to massage Lord Shankara’s body with ghee. Since then this ritual has been done till now.

 When Nar-Narayan went to Badrika village and worshiped Parthiva, Shiva appeared before them. Nar-narayan wished for welfare of the humanity. He wished if Shiva can remain here in his original form. Shiva fulfilled their wish, in the snow-clad Himalayas, in Kedar, Mahesha himself stayed there as a Jyoti. He is known as Kedareshwara.

From Rudraprayag to  Kedarnath there are several places of pilgrimage such as Agastyamuni, Ukhimath, Phauli- Pasalat Devi Maa, Bamsu (Lamgoundi) Vanasur, Maa Jwalamukhi Devi village Andarwari, Maa Chandika Devi village lwara, Maa Kali at alimathTrijugi Narayan and Kashi Vishwanath at Guptkashi.

 The temple remains open from April end to May first week, from Akshaya Tritiya and closes on Bhai Dooj. Inside the temple the first hall contains statues of the pandavas brother, Nandi Lord krishna, and virbhadra one of the guards of shiva. Other deities Statue along with statue of Draupadi are also installed in the main hall. A medium sized rough stone is worshiped in the Garbhagura of Kedarnath temple. A salient feature of the temple is the head of a man carved in the triangular stone fascia of the temple. Similar head can be seen carved in another temple constructed on the site, where the marriage of Shiva and parvati was held. Adi Shankara was believed to have revived this temple, along with Badrinath and other temples of Uttarakhand and it is believed to he had attained mahasamadhi at Kedarnath. Behind the temple is the Samadhi of Adi Shankara.( statue's pic)

Almost after 80 years, The Kedarnath valley along with other parts of the state was hit with rain, floods and landscapes on 16^th and 17^th June of 2013.

The temple withstood the floods while the temple complex and surrounding area were destroyed with the flood. While the flood carried stones and boulders with it, one large rock that came up to the temple. It settled itself at the rear side of the Kedarnath Temple. This caused an obstruction to the debris and water which were coming down the mountain side, diverting the flow to the sides of the temple and effectively the main force of the flash flood was taken away from the temple, thus minimizing the damage to the temple and surroundings.

Flood caused death of several thousands of pilgrims and local people.  The shops and hotels were destroyed leaving few witnesses surviving for lives. The heavy rains at the sites caused severe landslides taking away many lives.

what are the landslides:-

Landslides have always existed on our planet. Generally they are mass movements of rock, debris, and soil down a slope of land. While landslides are a naturally occurring environmental hazard they have recently increased in frequency in certain areas due to human activity. Although there are many different causes of landslides, they all have two things in common. 

According to the Geosciences "...they are the results of the failure of the soil and rock materials that make up the hill-slope and they are driven by gravity." What happens during the rain is when sloped areas become completely saturated by heavy rainfall many times landslides can occur. Without the aid of mechanical root support the soil simply runs off when it contains too much water.

Human activities such as construction, building, transportation, building dams and canals, and mining can disturb large volumes of earth materials.

 In fact, landslide damage is increasing every year as our population expands further into hilly regions. As more people overdevelop the land becomes less and less stable. The picture to the right displays the devastating effects of building too close to a hill with landslide potential.

Human factors that affect and cause the landslides are Method of timber harvesting which completely removes all old growth timber from the area. This method is hazardous because it destroys the existing mechanical root structure in the area. Mining operations that use blasting techniques often cause other areas that are at the risk of sliding to slide due to vibrations under the soil. The easiest solution for preventing catastrophic landslides is to stop building on steep slopes or on the edges of mountains - landslides may still occur, but the chances of people or property getting damaged is much less. 

This temple would probably now be open after two years.