Harsil located on the embankments of river Bhagirathi, is a village as well as a cantonment area that lies on the way to Gangotri, the pilgrimage of Hindus. It is located in the district of Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand state.

Found at an altitude of 7,860 ft from the sea level, Harsil is 73 km away from Uttarkashi and 30 km distant from this place is the Gangotri National Park which engrosses area of more than 1,553 square km.

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Demographics

It has been for a number of years that the ethnic group of people called as Bhotiyas having a small group of Jadhs are inhabitants here. The language spoken by them is somewhat similar to Tibetan.

Pilgrimage

There is a Hindu pilgrimage here where the idol of Ganga, the River Goddess is brought away from shrine and kept at Gangotri in the Himalayas upper region after Diwali and is being put at village 'Mukhba' close to Harsil. The shrine stays there during the winters when there is snow on Gangotri and is inaccessible.

Defence Agricultural Research Laboratory

There is a laboratory for research of Defence Agriculture which is being looked upon by Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) which was incorporated in the month of May in 1973.

History

Harsil had been famous for legend Raja Wilson or ‘Pahari’ Wilson. There was Frederick E. Wilson, who was an adventurer, and isolated the army of British immediately after Sepoy Mutiny in 1857. He ran to Garhwal and came to meet Raja of Tehri who was looking for refuge. On the contrary,

Raja was loyal to British and denied to take Wilson. He then went to the mountains for escaping detection. He landed in Harsil, which was a picturesque village having thick deodar slopes on both sides. He married a gorgeous pahari girl named as Gulabi. Then he ventured into a business of exporting skins, musks and fur to London.

In the beginning, Wilson did not take permission from Tehri- Garhwal Raja for his business of logging. However, later on, he got a lease from him, and gave him a share of profits. It is believed that revenue of Tehri Raja became ten times. There are sources which say that after few years, Raja Wilson, made his own currency and by late 1930s, he made his own coins which were being used among the people living there. As per the historians, the trade of timber made Wilson so rich as well as powerful that Tehri-Garhwal raja was not able to defend his subjects, who were brutalized as well as used like slaves by Wilson.

Raja Wilson had a kind of architecture interest and constructed the Wilson’s Cottage, which was a large mansion, today being ruined. He also constructed the Charlieville Hotel in Mussoorie, which is now the house of the Government of India and works as a training institute for recruits of Indian Administrative Service.

Going by the journalists, Hugh and Colleen Gantzer, raja Wilson built a mansion in Harsil which was double-storeyed and based on a frame of deodar trunk filled with stones. The bridge ofWilson had collapsed, however its traces still found. It never got reconstructed and at present pilgrims come here and cross this small bridge on the way to Gangotri. However, according to the local people, one can still see the Raja Wilson roaming around, on the moonlit nights , where there had been the bridge, for making the pilgrims who are unwilling to have belief in his creation which had vanished for long. At present there is a 410-feet bridge made up of iron which spans the Jadganga river.

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