Harishchandragad 2008

/ Vivek Kale Nature Photography
 

 
 


 

Harishchandragad
June 2008
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At the edge of Deccan Plateue in North western ghats stands a tall mountain fort called as Harischandragad, known for its ruggedness, natural beauty and ancient temple and caves. It is located at the boundary of Pune and Ahemednagar districts of Maharashtra.The Sanhyadri
mountains in this region challenge the mountaineeers and nature lovers. Harishchandragad is ancient place with references as back as 6th Century. A group of four of us decided to venture there in mid Mansoon 2008. This trip report takes you to Harischandragad, where nature shows both frightening and enlightening face
 

 

 
Pimpalgaon dam backwater with Harischandragad on right side of the lake
 
Four of us started from Pune for Harishchandragad. After travelling on smooth highway for about 110 kms from Pune, we went offroad for last 15 kms. As we drove on rough mud road along the edge of Pimpalgaon dam lake, we saw big green platues with the background of tall mountains with sharp pinnacles. The northern Maharashtra has more pinnacles than the southern western ghats. In winter flamingoes and other water birds visit this lake. After loosing the race with a state transport bus on this mud track by large margin, we reached the village called as Khireshwar. We parked the vehicle at the village and started our trek. Having felt perfect sunny day, I wondered wether my decision of leaving my 100-400 and Sigma Macro lens back home, was wrong !! I decided to leave my 100-400 and 150 macro lens back home, with the fear of heavy rains at the back of my mind. I took my antique Kodak digital camera and Canon EOS 350 D with 18-55 lens. After listening to information from the villagers, we pulled our socks, filled the water bottles, and started for the climb. On the way we climbed uphill through thick forest to reach a place called as Tolar pass. Tolar pass is about 1000 meters (3280 ft) above sea level. This forest is part of Harischandragad-Kalsubai wildlife Sanctuary. The mammals found here are Leopard, Jungle cat, Palm civet, Mongoose, Hyena, Wolf, Jackal, Fox, Wild Boar, Barking Deer, Sambar, Hare, and Bats etc. The most attractive animals are Indian Giant Squirrel and Porcupine.
The Junnar region of Pune district is known for its conflict between leoapards and humans. The vegetation type is southern moist mixed deciduous. The part of Sahyadri that is close to West Coast is semi evergreen forest and semi deciduous. The main tree species that are seen here are Hirda, Jambhul, Chandawa, Bahava, Kumbhal, Siras, Kharvel, Karap, Avali, Aashind, Lokhandi, Beheda etc. Species that are undergrowth are Mandar, Chilhar, Parjambhual, Karvi, Karwand, Ber, Dhaiti, and Rametha. There are large patches of grasslands in this sanctaury. I saw some forest birds in the woods along with the common birds. The flowers of Curcuma pseudomontana (Hill Turmeric), Carvia callosa (Karvi) and Thalictrum dalzellii (Shwetambara) were seen in the forest.
 

 

 
Buds of Carvia callosa (Karvi) which blooms once in seven years, typically seen in forest undergrowth.
 
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Flower of Carvia callosa (Karvi) which blooms once in seven years, typically seen in forest undergrowth.
 
 

 

 
Flower of Thalictrum dalzellii (Shwetambara) which is rare in grasslands at highest elevations.
 
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Chlorophytum tuberosum (Kuli), seen in forest undergrowth on slope.
 
After Tolar pass, one has to climb up on rock patch of about 650 ft height. The inclination angle of the rock patch is about 60 deg. The Tolar Khind route is not recommended for inexperienced trekkers because of fall exposure. We were lucky to have no rains and the rock patch was dry with very small patches of algae and water streams. With the wild calls booming in the evergreen forest in the valley below, and the beautiful cliff rock flowers dancing with the breeze, we enjoyed difficult rock patch climb.
At the relatively comfortable locations, we took halts to look back in deep valley, to look at the clean blue skies with clouds at the distance, the greens grasslands on the mountaintop opposite, the rock flowers, the swift martins floating in the wind. The most enchanting were the tiny flowers on the cliff, called as Utricularia striatula (Chire-Papni). In marathi these flowers are called as Chire-papni meaning the eyelids of wet cliffs. Surprisingly this innocent looking herb is insectivorous herb.
 

 

 
Gregarious five lobed Chire-Papni flowers
 
 

 

 
 
 

 

 
You must be wondering about the exact geography of the area. So the mountain opposite to Harischandragad, "Karkai" is shown here as illustration. The forest at lower level, cliffs and the upper platue are indicated in this image. The Majestic Impatiens acaulis (Pan- Terda) flowers were seen gregarious on the wet cliffs close to waterfalls.
 
 

 

 
Pan-Terda on the cliffs
 
 

 

 
Pan-Terda on the cliffs
 
 

 

 
The bud of Pan-Terda.
 
As we relaxed for the photography at the middle of the rock patch, sudden thunder at the distant warned us to move ahead. At the distane we could see thundering clouds approaching the cliff. We decided to move ahead as we wanted to complete the rock patch before the clouds hit it.
After ascending this difficult patch we reached what is called as edge of the Harischandragad Platue. We stopped here for a while to enjoy the skies and mountains beyond. This Platue is at the elevation of 3850 feet (1175 m). As we relaxed for some time we saw splendid lower platue of Khireshwar village with the lake and mountains in background. On the opposite side of Tolar khind there is a mountain known as Karkai. A shephard was grazing his cows on the top of the mountain and I could hardly get the cows as 4 or 5 pixels in my 8 megapixel image at 55 mm.
 

 

 
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We started walking on the platue to reach the Harischandragad center, ancient temple of Lord Shiva. One has to walk for about couple of km on th platue and has to cross 6 to 7 small hillocks to reach the caves and temple. As we crossed the first hillock,which had dense forest, we were shocked by the scene infront of us. Thousands of flowers had bloomed on the platue.
The rock flowers did not give us any idea about the flowers in platue. The flowers on platue were completely different species as compared to that seen on the cliff. We got mesmerised and our mind started dancing with the flowers in the cold breeze. We smelled, photographed the flowers. The fearfull excitement of rock ascend got mixed with happiness of seeing so many wildflowers, with the background of thundering clouds.
 

 

 
Senecio bombayensis (Sonki flowers)
 
 

 

One Sonki flower however was standing away from these crowds of flowers. Lonely behind the rock this fellow was probabaly angry for something
 
 

 

 
Senecio bombayensis (Sonki flowers)
 
 

 

 
Pinda Concanensis (Panda) flowers.
 
 

 

 
Pinda Concanensis (Panda) flowers.
 
 

 

 
Pinda Concanensis (Panda) flowers.
 
 
 
 
 


References :
1.Indian Mammals, a field guide by Vivek Menon (Book)
2.Websites of forest depts. of Telangana, Andhra pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Maharashtra
3.Western ghats, by Late Mohan Pai. (Book)
4.IUCN Red List Data Website

Contact me at kale_v@rediffmail.com for any queries and suggestions.