Mashobra is a town in Shimla district

Shimla district

Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh, lies between the longitude 77.00" and 78.19" east and latitude 30.45" and 31.44" north, has its headquarters at Shimla city. It is surrounded by Mandi and Kullu in the north, Kinnaur in the east, Uttarakhand in the south, Sirmaur in the west...

 of Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east...

. It is connected to the state capital Shimla

Shimla

Shimla , formerly known as Simla, is the capital city of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of the British Raj in India. A popular tourist destination, Shimla is often referred to as the "Queen of Hills," a term coined by the British...

 (earlier Simla) through the historic Hindustan–Tibet Road built in 1850 by Lord Dalhousie

James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie

James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie KT, PC was a Scottish statesman, and a colonial administrator in British India....

.

Geography

Mashobra is located at 31.13°N 77.23°E. It has an average elevation of 2,146 metre

Metre

The metre , symbol m, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units . Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole , its definition has been periodically refined to reflect growing knowledge of metrology...

s (7,041 feet).

The retreat

Mashobra is notable for housing one of the only two Presidential

President of India

The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary...

 retreats in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The other retreat is Rashtrapati Nilayam

Rashtrapati Nilayam

Rashtrapati Nilayam originally known as Residency House is the official retreat of the President of India. It is located in Bollarum, Secunderabad. It was thrown open for public viewing from 1 January 2010 and 10 January 2010, with entry being free....

 in Secunderabad

Secunderabad

Secunderabad popularly known as the twin city of Hyderabad is located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh north of Hyderabad. Named after Sikandar Jah, the third Nizam of the Asaf Jahi dynasty, Secunderabad was founded in 1806 AD as a British cantonment...

.

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

Chharabra

Chharabra, a small village situated approximately 8250 feet above sea level, 13 km from Shimla, India, on National Highway 22 , has summer retreat of President of India, summer residence of Governor of Punjab, a five star luxury hotel, a boarding school, and a helipad even though the...

, 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 and his wife Lady Edwina spent a few weeks in this retreat. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru paid them a visit, which is documented in the biographies of Lady Mountbatten.

Other places of interest

Mashobra is also popular as a tourist destination. Wildflower Hall at Chharabra

Chharabra

Chharabra, a small village situated approximately 8250 feet above sea level, 13 km from Shimla, India, on National Highway 22 , has summer retreat of President of India, summer residence of Governor of Punjab, a five star luxury hotel, a boarding school, and a helipad even though the...

, now a property of Oberoi Hotels, has been residence to Lord Kitchener

Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener

Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...

 as well as Lord Ripon during the British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

.
Pankaj Mishra

Pankaj Mishra

Pankaj Mishra born 1969 in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh , is an Indian essayist and novelist. He is particularly notable for his book Butter Chicken in Ludhiana, a sociological study of small-town India, and his writing for the New York Review of Books.He graduated with a bachelor's degree in commerce...

 is a famous writer/poet who lives in Mashobra.

At 3 km from Mashobra is Carignano, a beautiful picnic spot that was a villa of Chevalier Federico Peliti, an Italian photographer in India from the times of Queen Victoria, who named it in honor of his native town Carignano

Carignano

Carignano is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 20 km south of Turin. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 8,777 and an area of 50.2 km².-Geography:...

 near Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

 in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. 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

Anita Mazumdar Desai is an Indian novelist and Emeritus John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

.

Flora and fauna

Mashobra is part of Shimla Reserve Forest sanctuary and catchment area. The natural vegetation comprises pine

Pine

Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

, oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

, cedar or Himalayan deodar, and rhododendron

Rhododendron

Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...

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

Jackal

Although the word jackal has been historically used to refer to many small- to medium-sized species of the wolf genus of mammals, Canis, today it most properly and commonly refers to three species: the black-backed jackal and the side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of...

s, kakkar (barking deer), and the occasional leopard

Leopard

The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...

, as well as numerous bird species such as the Himalayan eagle, pheasant

Pheasant

Pheasants refer to some members of the Phasianinae subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have...

s, chikor and partridge

Partridge

Partridges are birds in the pheasant family, Phasianidae. They are a non-migratory Old World group.These are medium-sized birds, intermediate between the larger pheasants and the smaller quails. Partridges are native to Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East...

s.

Educational Institution

Himalayan International School

Himalayan International School

Himalayan International School, Shimla is a co-ed day and boarding school situated in summer palace of former Maharaja of Darbhanga called Kalyani House located at Chharabra, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. The building was named after Maharani Kam Sundari Singh, third wife of Maharaja of...

 at Chharabra

Chharabra

Chharabra, a small village situated approximately 8250 feet above sea level, 13 km from Shimla, India, on National Highway 22 , has summer retreat of President of India, summer residence of Governor of Punjab, a five star luxury hotel, a boarding school, and a helipad even though the...

is a major residential school in Mashobra.