Mashobra is a town in

Shimla district Shimla is a district in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. Its headquarters is the state capital of Shimla. Neighbouring districts are Mandi and Kullu in the north, Kinnaur in the east, Uttarakhand in the southeast, Solan to the ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peak ...

. It is connected to the state capital

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

(erstwhile Simla) through the historic

Hindustan–Tibet Road , direction_b = East , terminus_b = Shipki La, Sino-Indian border , states = Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh , destinations = Moga, Jagraon, Ludhiana, Mohali, Chandigarh, Panchkula, Kalka, Solan, Shimla, Theog, Narkanda, Kuma ...

built in 1850 by

Lord Dalhousie James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (22 April 1812 – 19 December 1860), also known as Lord Dalhousie, styled Lord Ramsay until 1838 and known as The Earl of Dalhousie between 1838 and 1849, was a Scottish statesman and co ...

Geography

Mashobra is located at . It has an average elevation of 2,146

metre The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its p ...

s (7,041

feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg mad ...

Retreat

Mashobra is notable for housing one of the two Presidential retreats in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. The other retreat is

Rashtrapati Nilayam Rashtrapati Nilayam (literally the "President's House") formerly known as Residency House is the official retreat of the President of India located in Hyderabad, Telangana, where the President stays for at least two weeks during winter and condu ...

Secunderabad Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the Indian state of Telangana. It is the headquarters of the South Central Railway ...

. The president visits Mashobra at least once every year, and during this time his or her core office shifts to the retreat at

Chharabra Chharabra is a small village situated approximately 8250 feet (2514 m) above sea level, 13 km from Shimla, India, on National Highway 22 (India), National Highway 22 (Hindustan-Tibet Road). It has the summer retreat of President of India, t ...

, in the vicinity of Mashobra. The building housing the retreat is a completely wooden structure originally constructed in 1850. In May 1948, before returning to London at the end of his mission as viceroy and then governor general of India,

Lord Mountbatten Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of German ...

and his wife Lady Edwina spent a few weeks in this retreat. The then Prime Minister

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

paid them a visit, which is documented in the biographies of Lady Mountbatten.

Other places of interest

Mashobra is also a tourist destination.

Wildflower Hall A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant probably is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is in any way different from the w ...

, now a property of

Oberoi Hotels The Oberoi Group is an award-winning luxury hotel group with its head office in New Delhi, India. Founded in 1934, the company owns and operates 32 luxury hotels and two river cruise ships in 7 countries, primarily under its Oberoi Hotels & Res ...

, has been residence to

Lord Kitchener Lord Kitchener may refer to: * Earl Kitchener, for the title * Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, (; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a senior British Army officer and colonial administrator. ...

as well as

Lord Ripon George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, (24 October 1827 – 9 July 1909), styled Viscount Goderich from 1833 to 1859 and known as the Earl of Ripon in 1859 and as the Earl de Grey and Ripon from 1859 to 1871, was a British p ...

during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi language, Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Q ...

. At 3 km from Mashobra is Carignano, a picnic spot that was a villa of Chevalier

Federico Peliti Federico Peliti (29 June 1844 – 28 October 1914) was a baker, confectioner, hotelier, manager of restaurants in Shimla and Calcutta, and an amateur photographer in British India. His restaurant in Shimla, Peliti's, was very popular and finds me ...

, an Italian photographer in India from the times of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

, who named it in honor of his native town

Carignano Carignano may refer to: Places * Carignano, Piedmont, a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Italy * Palazzo Carignano, a historical building in the centre of Turin, Italy * Teatro Carignano, a theatre in Turin, Italy People * Hous ...

near

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The villa was transformed to a weekend resort in 1920 and is also referred to in one of the novels by

Anita Desai Anita Desai, born Anita Mazumdar (born 24 June 1937) is an Indian novelist and the Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a writer she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three ti ...

Pankaj Mishra Pankaj Mishra FRSL (born 1969) is an Indian essayist and novelist. He was awarded the Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014. Early life and education Mishra was born in Jhansi, India. His father was a railway worker and trade unioni ...

is a writer/poet who lives in Mashobra.

Amit Khanna Amit Khanna is an Indian film producer, director, writer, and journalist. He was the founder chairman of Reliance Entertainment, former president of the Producers Guild of India, and the founder trustee of the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Ima ...

, film maker, poet, writer and media guru has a cottage in Mashobra where he spends several weeks every year working on his new book. Like Amit,

Navtej Sarna Navtej Singh Sarna (born 1957) is an Indian author-columnist, diplomat and former Indian Ambassador to the United States. He previously served as the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, and the Ambassador to Israel. ...

, well known diplomat and author, is also a part time resident of Puranikoti village near Mashobra.

Flora and fauna

Mashobra is part of

Shimla Water Catchment and Wildlife Sanctuary Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, ...

. The natural vegetation comprises

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae *Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona * ...

or Himalayan ''deodar'', and

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nativ ...

, as well as maple and horse chestnut. The wildlife consists of monkeys, Langurs,

jackal Jackals are medium-sized canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backe ...

s, ''kakkar'' (

barking deer Barking may refer to: Places * Barking, London, a town in East London, England ** London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, a local government district covering the town of Barking ** Municipal Borough of Barking, a historical local government di ...

), and the occasional

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia ...

, as well as numerous bird species such as the

Himalayan eagle Himalayan may refer to: * Himalayas mountain range ** Transhimalaya, a subrange (some species found there are referred to as "Himalayan" not "Transhimalayan") * ''Himalayan'' (album), an album by the band Band of Skulls * Himalayan cat, the breed ...

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasia ...

s, ''chikor'' and

partridge A partridge is a medium-sized galliform bird in any of several genera, with a wide native distribution throughout parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Several species have been introduced to the Americas. They are sometimes grouped in the Perdic ...

Educational Institution

Himalayan International School Himalayan International School is a co-ed day and boarding school situated in Himachal Pradesh, India, in the village of Chharabra Chharabra is a small village situated approximately 8250 feet (2514 m) above sea level, 13 km from Shiml ...

is a major residential school in Mashobra.

References

{{commons category, Mashobra Tourist attractions in Shimla