Sir Everest’s house to ‘rock’ on New Year

MUSSOORIE: Blaring loud music bang opposite a 175-year-old iconic building located within a forest area that once served as home to Sir George Everest, after whom the world’s highest mountain peak is named – that might not be your idea of a New Year party, but that is how 2016 will begin at Mussoorie.
Pamphlets advertising the party are being distributed in the hill town.There are also impossible-to-miss large hoardings all along the route to Mussoorie from Dehradun.
Uttarakhand Tourism department has a board at the venue welcoming tourists to “Parkestate George Everest”.
“There is deep forest around the park estate. Do not cause harm to the vegetation and wildlife,” tourists are told.
Photographer and author Ganesh Saili, long-time resident of Mussoorie, is more than a little upset: “A party in the forest! How horrid is that! They are just driving the mountain quails away!”
Ask state tourism minister Dinesh Dhanay about the party, and he says it is not “unforesty”. “The idea is to promote tourism,” he says, over phone.
Just five months ago, the minister had visited the spot and said that the house would be transformed into a museum to geographer George Everest, who served as Surveyor General of India from 1830-1843, and was responsible for conducting the first trigonometric survey of India, to fix the boundaries of colonial India. The house had served also as a laboratory. The world’s highest peak was named after Everest once this peak was surveyed by Everest’s successor as Surveyor General, Andrew Scott Waugh.
Just five months ago, the tourism minister had visited the house and said that the house would be converted into a museum. A portion of the estate has already been leased out to a firm for starting a hot air ballooning facility on PPP model. This facility was launched with much fanfare during the Winterline Carnival, but the museum plans appear to have gone back into cold storage.
Historian Gopal Bharadwaj says he has already written out a letter to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi seeking financial help for launching the museum. He says he will send the letter in early January.