Roop means 'beautiful' and kund means
'lake or pond’.
Roopkund is a famous glacial lake
located in Uttarakhand which is not only beautiful but also has a mysterious
touch. Because of this reason this lake is called as ‘Mystery lake’. Roopkund
is also a popular trekking destination. It is shallow lake of about 2 mts., with the
edges covered with snow almost throughout the year surrounded by snow-clad
mountains and glaciers.
Roopkund will be drenched in snow and
will be frozen most of the time. The mystery of this lake is that one can find
the human skeletons in the water and on the banks of the river when the snow
melts. Scientific research predicts that the skeletal remains are of 9th
century AD.
No one has found the exact theory for
the mystery of skeletons around the lake till today.
Some of the scientists believed that
they have finally solved the mystery on how the skeletons of more than 200
people came to be in a frozen lake in northern India.
There are several tales associated with
this lake one of which tells that the british forest guard first discovered the
skeletons in 1942 and they initially thought that those bodies are of Japanese
soldiers travelling through india as part of world war II land invasion.
Because of the cold climate around the
lake which is at 16,000 ft above sea level had preserved some of the flesh,hair
and leather clothes of the victims. When the matter was brought to the light,
an examination was conducted. It was found that these bones did not belong to
the Japanese soldiers and the corpses were a century old.
Many theories suggest that the people
must have died due to an epidemic, landslide or because of a ritual suicide.
While some British explorers believe that the bones belong to the General
Zorawar Singh’s army who lost their way and died in the lap of Himalayas while
returning home after the Battle of Tibet in 1841. Many historians opinion is
that these corpses belong to an unsuccessful attack by Mohammad Tughlak on the
Garhwal Himalayas.
Apart from this mystery there is a
legend states that when Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati were on their way to
Kailash Parvat, Parvati who had killed a demon wanted to clean her. Lord Shiva
then created a lake with his Trishul. When Parvati took a dip in its crystal
clear water she could easily see her beautiful reflection in the lake. Hence,
the lake was named as Roopkund
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