Almora

The ancient town of Almora, before it's establishment was under the possession of Katyuri king Baichaldeo. He donated major part of this land to a Gujrati Brahmin Sri Chand Tiwari. Later on when Chand kingdom was founded in Baramandal, the town of Almora was founded at this centrally located place in 1560 by Kalyan Chand.



In the days of the Chand Kings it was called Rajapur. The name "Rajpur" is also mentioned over a number of ancient copper plates. The town of Almora is situated over a horse saddle shaped ridge of a mountain. The eastern portion of the ridge is known as Talifat and the western one is known as Selifat. The market is at the top of the ridge where these two, Talifat and Selifat jointly terminate.

Almora district has an area of 2,085 sq mi (5,400 sq km). It lies within the Himalayas and borders on Nepal.The district of Almora is located in the province of Uttarakhand in India. In east lies the district of Pithoragarh bordering Tibet and it's west lies the district of Garhwal and North lies the newly created district of Bageshwer and in the South there is the district Nainital.



April to June and September to November are the best seasons to visit Almora. In fact except the rainy seasons, Almora can be visited any time of the year. During summers the temperature of this place is comparatively more than any other hill stations. Even then evening and morning temperatures are low enough to wear light warm cloths. The fun of walking among hills in warm sunlight can not be described in words. During winters festival of Dussehra has its own added attraction.

Almora district has tremendous potential of developing tourism industry due to the beautiful landscape, religious places, trekking trails, national parks, mountain peaks and historical and archeological sites. Apart from tourism, the economy of the region is predominantly agrarian. More than 4/5th of the working population is directly engaged in agriculture.The region has immense potential for the development of horticulture crops-apple, orange, malta, pear, grapes peach, plum appricot, litchi, mango, guava etc are widely produced fruits.

Other important occupations include forestry, sheep rearing and livestock farming and household or cottage industries. A less developed state of the non- primary sectors result in high dependency on agriculture and uneconomic cultivation of crops together with the environmental limits create not only a condition of deficit but also a disguised unemployment.

The region is immensely rich with 4000 species of plants, having remarkable diversity in it's natural vegetation by virtue of its being at a great range of elevation. In addition to its climatic variations, particularly in temperature and precipitation associated with the alignment and altitudes of ranges and nature of valleys, determine the altitudinal growth and variety of vegetation. The flora of this region may be classified into tropical, Himalayan sub-tropical and sub alpine and alpine vegetation. The alpine and sub alpine zones are considered as the most natural abode of the largest number of medicinal plants.



The sub-alpine zones of Almora and outskirts are a natural sanctuary for leopard, Langur, Himalayan black bear, kakar, goral etc. Whereas the high altitude zones abound musk deer, popularly called Kastura Mrig, snow leopard, blue sheep, thar etc. The entire zone is rich in a remarkable variety of birds possessing plumage of magnificent design and colours like peacock, which include grey quail, Kala Titar, Whistling thrush, Chakor, monal pheasant cheer pheasant, koklas pheasant etc.