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To visit the village of Malana deep in the Himalayas, a COVID-19 vaccination team scrambled over a landslide that blocked the road the day before, scaled a retaining wall and then began a three-hour trek down and up a river valley.
Despite the hostile terrain, Himachal Pradesh became the first in India to administer at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose in all its adults.
The steep topography was a challenge overcome by health workers walking for hours or days to reach remote villages.
Please click on the images for a better look.
IMAGE: Phula Devi, 30, a local health worker carries boxes containing the Covishield vaccine, at Malana village in Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh. All Photographs: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
IMAGE: Health workers walk through a road, that was blocked after a landslide, as they trek to a remote village as a part of a vaccination drive, near Malana village in Kullu district.
Blocked by the landslide, they left their vehicle with two blue vaccine boxes slung over their shoulders to manoeuvre over the rubble, climb the wall and then walk to the trailhead leading to the village.
IMAGE: Kamla Devi, 58, a health worker, gives a dose of the Covishield vaccine to a villager, as part of a vaccination drive at Malana village.
"People were initially scared to take the vaccine, worried they would fall sick or die" said village head Rajuram. "Then I took it and others also mustered the courage."
IMAGE: Health workers eat their lunch as they take a break during a trek through the mountains to vaccinate people.
The steep topography was a challenge overcome by health workers walking for hours or days to reach remote villages.
IMAGE: Health workers carry medical kits and a box containing Covishield vaccines, before starting their trek through the mountains to vaccinate people in remote villages.
IMAGE: Bimla Thakur, 56, a health worker, treks through mountains to vaccinate people in remote villages in Himachal Pradesh.
IMAGE: Villagers wait to receive a dose of the Covishield vaccine near Malana village in Kullu.
IMAGE: Medical kits and boxes containing Covishield vaccines, are transported on a ropeway trolley to Malana village in Kullu district.
Before beginning the trek to the village, health workers placed vaccine boxes onto a gondola connected to pulleys to carry the medicine across the river gorge that separates Malana from the road.
IMAGE: Health workers Kamla Devi, 58, and Kanta Devi, 26, trek through the mountains to vaccinate people.
IMAGE: Malana village in Kullu.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
