From His perch, Buddha looks over the lush green Sanjay Gandhi National Park at Borivli amidst the concrete jungle of residential towers
By Eisha Sarkar
Posted On Mumbai Mirror on Monday, June 15, 2009 at 04:56:34 PM
For most Mumbaikars, a visit to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park at Borivli is not the best Sunday outing. The reason's obvious. It's not the wild animals they fear, but the prospect jostling for space in a packed local on our day off. But then that's just a little bit of discomfort that comes your way of chance to explore the only bit of wilderness that's there in Mumbai, isn't it?
Wild, wild, north
The trip to the national park is almost as much of an experience as a walk through it. The park dates back to the 4th century BC. Sopara and Kalyan were two ports in the vicinity that traded with ancient lands such as Greece and Mesopotamia. The routes between these two ports cut through this forest. We actually surfed Google Earth and Wikimapia to study the park's topography. As much as our untrained eyes could tell, we figured that there's one gate and one road that leads from there, but we still wanted to look for diversions. While maps served our purpose well (at least of giving us the idea that there are lakes - Tulsi and Vihar - and caves in the forest), they of course, missed out on a few points - like the thick scrub of deciduous trees that overrun the forest make it actually difficult to 'cut across' or that the makeshift bridge on the way up to the Kanheri caves is just that and you 'cross it' not by walking through it but by actually going under it to the other side.
Women of the woods
The first bus was supposed to leave for the Kanheri caves from the park gate at 9 am sharp. When we boarded it, the conductor told us it would take Rs 20 per head one way but he needed at least 10 people to start. We had no choice but to wait. We counted 10 heads and were ready to go, but the conductor wouldn't budge. "The driver's gone for chai," he said. We waited. Soon, we found a group of women with huge bags boarding the bus. We peered in to see what they may contain and to our surprise found cucumbers, jamun and raw mangoes. The women alighted near the Kanheri caves and proudly displayed their wares - sliced cucumbers and mangoes priced at Rs 5 a plate. The sight of them, allayed our own fears - of tourists!
Buddha smiles...
The caves are named Kanheri probably because of the black colour of the rock (Krishnagiri, the original name of the park, literally means black mountain in Sanskrit). Located approximately six kilometres away from the park's entrance, these caves date from 1st century BC to 9th century AD. The earliest are 109 tiny rock-cut cells, carved into the side of a hill. These are spartan and unadorned. Each cave has a stone plinth for a bed. A congregation hall with huge stone pillars contains the stupa, a Buddhist shrine. Farther up the hill are the remains of an ancient water system, canals and cisterns that collected and channelled the rainwater into huge tanks. Once the caves became permanent monasteries, they began to be carved out of the rock with intricate reliefs of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas carved into the walls. Kanheri had become an important Buddhist settlement on the Konkan coast by the 3rd century AD. The entry to the caves costs Rs 5 for Indians and Rs 100 for foreigners. There were no guides - written or human - to tell us about the caves, so we decided to explore them on our own.
... as tourists plunder
Why Kanheri is a favourite among picnickers is anybody's guess. It offers a spectacular view of the national park - the green in the midst of a concrete jungle. Why picnickers can't appreciate this beauty without littering the caves with packets of chips, plastic bottles and paper napkins (all bought from the canteen store at the base of the caves), is something we can't really fathom. The sight was pitiful - middle-aged women in jeans working their way up the rock-face wearing Kolkhapuris instead of sneakers amidst kids who decided to play badminton with Buddha's giant statues as spectators. It seemed like someone had poured thick oil paint into one of the underground water tanks while in the other tiny fish chewed onto a piece of wafer. And then there were men who tore shirts off their backs and raced each other through the forest crying out like Tarzan!
Monkeys and murgis
An estimated 800 types of flowering plants; 284 kinds of birds; 5,000 species of insects; 36 types of mammals; 50 reptiles and 150 species of butterfly call the forest their home.
We knew that getting anywhere close to the park's famed inhabitants - leopards and deer - wouldn't be an easy task, more so because we needed special permissions from the forest officer to go to the two lakes in the middle of densely forested areas. Instead, we focussed on species of monkeys - Rhesus, macaques and langurs virtually inhabit the caves - and insects and birds. The national park has a good variety of birds such as hornbills, woodpeckers, golden oriole, bulbul, robins, owlets etc. We even saw chickens and roosters running amok around huts decorated with Warli art.
The prospect of seeing lions and leopards in the safari enclosure didn't seem too interesting and we decided to trek back from Kanheri to the main gate - feat that took us about two and a half hours in the afternoon sun.
Getting there
The national park is one kilometre from Borivli station.
Entry fee to the park is Rs 20 per head.
Park timings: 7.30 am to 7.30 pm (the earlier you go, the better it will be)
The first Kanheri bus service starts at 9 am.
By Eisha Sarkar
Posted On Mumbai Mirror on Monday, June 15, 2009 at 04:56:34 PM
For most Mumbaikars, a visit to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park at Borivli is not the best Sunday outing. The reason's obvious. It's not the wild animals they fear, but the prospect jostling for space in a packed local on our day off. But then that's just a little bit of discomfort that comes your way of chance to explore the only bit of wilderness that's there in Mumbai, isn't it?
Wild, wild, northThe trip to the national park is almost as much of an experience as a walk through it. The park dates back to the 4th century BC. Sopara and Kalyan were two ports in the vicinity that traded with ancient lands such as Greece and Mesopotamia. The routes between these two ports cut through this forest. We actually surfed Google Earth and Wikimapia to study the park's topography. As much as our untrained eyes could tell, we figured that there's one gate and one road that leads from there, but we still wanted to look for diversions. While maps served our purpose well (at least of giving us the idea that there are lakes - Tulsi and Vihar - and caves in the forest), they of course, missed out on a few points - like the thick scrub of deciduous trees that overrun the forest make it actually difficult to 'cut across' or that the makeshift bridge on the way up to the Kanheri caves is just that and you 'cross it' not by walking through it but by actually going under it to the other side.
Women of the woodsThe first bus was supposed to leave for the Kanheri caves from the park gate at 9 am sharp. When we boarded it, the conductor told us it would take Rs 20 per head one way but he needed at least 10 people to start. We had no choice but to wait. We counted 10 heads and were ready to go, but the conductor wouldn't budge. "The driver's gone for chai," he said. We waited. Soon, we found a group of women with huge bags boarding the bus. We peered in to see what they may contain and to our surprise found cucumbers, jamun and raw mangoes. The women alighted near the Kanheri caves and proudly displayed their wares - sliced cucumbers and mangoes priced at Rs 5 a plate. The sight of them, allayed our own fears - of tourists!
Buddha smiles...The caves are named Kanheri probably because of the black colour of the rock (Krishnagiri, the original name of the park, literally means black mountain in Sanskrit). Located approximately six kilometres away from the park's entrance, these caves date from 1st century BC to 9th century AD. The earliest are 109 tiny rock-cut cells, carved into the side of a hill. These are spartan and unadorned. Each cave has a stone plinth for a bed. A congregation hall with huge stone pillars contains the stupa, a Buddhist shrine. Farther up the hill are the remains of an ancient water system, canals and cisterns that collected and channelled the rainwater into huge tanks. Once the caves became permanent monasteries, they began to be carved out of the rock with intricate reliefs of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas carved into the walls. Kanheri had become an important Buddhist settlement on the Konkan coast by the 3rd century AD. The entry to the caves costs Rs 5 for Indians and Rs 100 for foreigners. There were no guides - written or human - to tell us about the caves, so we decided to explore them on our own.
... as tourists plunderWhy Kanheri is a favourite among picnickers is anybody's guess. It offers a spectacular view of the national park - the green in the midst of a concrete jungle. Why picnickers can't appreciate this beauty without littering the caves with packets of chips, plastic bottles and paper napkins (all bought from the canteen store at the base of the caves), is something we can't really fathom. The sight was pitiful - middle-aged women in jeans working their way up the rock-face wearing Kolkhapuris instead of sneakers amidst kids who decided to play badminton with Buddha's giant statues as spectators. It seemed like someone had poured thick oil paint into one of the underground water tanks while in the other tiny fish chewed onto a piece of wafer. And then there were men who tore shirts off their backs and raced each other through the forest crying out like Tarzan!
Monkeys and murgis
An estimated 800 types of flowering plants; 284 kinds of birds; 5,000 species of insects; 36 types of mammals; 50 reptiles and 150 species of butterfly call the forest their home.
We knew that getting anywhere close to the park's famed inhabitants - leopards and deer - wouldn't be an easy task, more so because we needed special permissions from the forest officer to go to the two lakes in the middle of densely forested areas. Instead, we focussed on species of monkeys - Rhesus, macaques and langurs virtually inhabit the caves - and insects and birds. The national park has a good variety of birds such as hornbills, woodpeckers, golden oriole, bulbul, robins, owlets etc. We even saw chickens and roosters running amok around huts decorated with Warli art.
The prospect of seeing lions and leopards in the safari enclosure didn't seem too interesting and we decided to trek back from Kanheri to the main gate - feat that took us about two and a half hours in the afternoon sun.
Getting there
The national park is one kilometre from Borivli station.
Entry fee to the park is Rs 20 per head.
Park timings: 7.30 am to 7.30 pm (the earlier you go, the better it will be)
The first Kanheri bus service starts at 9 am.
1 comment:
Good Post keep it up!
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