Chokhanda Mahadev, Kachchh (by Prabhat Sharma)

First we visited Chokhanda Mahadev, and ancient Shiv Temple, which was destroyed during the earthquake of 2001 and has been reconstructed. The temple complex is far from the main highway and offers peaceful and quite environment. The Pujariji was known to us as he was from Gandhidham and offered tea.

Innerdome of Bhadreshwar Jain Temple (By Rajesh Lalwani)

After few hours at Chokhanda Mahdev, we went to another temple, which is yet under construction. We visited Vasai Jain Tirth near Village Bhadreshwar. The Jain Temple is considered one of the oldest Jain Temple of the Kutch. Believed to be constructed some 2500 years ago and destroyed and re-built more than once.  During the earth quake of 2001, the temple was completely destroyed. The temple is now under construction for last 4-5 years with attempts to restore the previous glory it had.

Bhadreshawar Jain Temple (by Jayesh Bheda)

The temple provides beautiful and amazing showcase of archielogical style of Jain temples.

How to reach : By road, Village Bhadreshwar is 35 km from Gandhidham , 30 km from Mundra.  Government bus and private taxi are available from all the points to reach the village.

Posted in Gandhidham, Interesting, Kachchh, Photo-Meet Tagged: Gandhidham, Gujarat, Kachchh, kutch, PCoG ]]> http://pcog.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/trip-report-of-photo-meet-at-bhadreshwar-kutch/feed/ 2 Jayesh Bheda Chokhanda Mahadev, Kachchh. Innerdome of Bhadreshwar Jain Temple Bhadreshawar Jain Temple (by Jayesh Bheda) http://pcog.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/photomeet-at-chhari-dhand-kutch/ http://pcog.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/photomeet-at-chhari-dhand-kutch/#comments Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:18:50 +0000 jayeshbheda http://pcog.wordpress.com/?p=153 ]]> The previous photo-meet to around Dhinodhar hill and than was exciting and required another trip to cover the area on 16-03-2009(Sunday).

Another interesting visiting place near Dhinodhar Hill is Chhari Dhand. We visited Kutch Fossil Park again, and took young Vikram Sodha as our guide to Chhari Dhand and surrounding areas.

Chhari-Dhand is the largest natural wetland in Kachchh District (Gujarat), located near Chhari-Fulay village of Nakhtrana, Taluka. This wetland is home to thousands of migratory waterfowl. During a good monsoon year Chhari-Dhand(Dhand, a shallow lake) gets inundated with rain water that lasts through out the year and is a paradise for amateur bird watchers, wetland and wildlife experts. It provides habitat for 55 species with the abundance of around 50,000 birds. Many of these fall under the rare and threatened categories. Many raptor species, Greater flamingo , Great white pelican, Common pochards and Common coot are some of the bird species commonly found here. The Indian wolf, Jungle cat, Chinkara, Caracal are the threatened mammalian fauna that depend on this wetland.

Chhari Dhand, Kutch © Jayesh Bheda

However, when we visited  it was completely dry as the monsoon was below than average. Still the panoramic view of the barren land was breathtaking.

Thereafter, while returning we visited Kori Hill, a small mound of about 200-250 mtrs. But it was not the hill but its surrounding are,  which is one of the fossil site in Kutch.

Mr. Mohansinh Sodha of the fossil park , with his sheer passion , sole handly has collected of nearly 13000 fossils of various variety roaming through out in Kutch since 1976.

He has exhibited his collection in various cities and in previous two Rannotsav organised in Rann of Kutch by the Government of Gujarat. What disappoints him is the lack of interest of gernal public let alone the government in “stones”.

In the absence of sufficient resources , he maintains all those fossils in a small room openly on wooden ramps. At PCoG we have decided to cover his work photographically , and publish through the medium net. Further his knowledge regarding the geography and history of Kutch is very vast and is useful we wish to record it somehow.

Thereafter we visited anicent temple of Than Jaagir. The temple is of Dharamnath of Nath Sampradya. Near to that temple, one abandoned temple is there, which is to be said as the old buddhist monastery. Howerver there was nothing to prove the legend.

Indian Globe Thistle ( Echinops echinatus) © Jayesh Bheda

On 01-03-2009 we had little time so we went as far as Shinay Lake for two hours in the evening. We found most of birds leaving for their nests while the sun was setting.

The water level of the pond was receeding quickly providing some space for the local farmer to cultivate next crop.

Great White Pelicans at Kidana pond ©

Who missed the previous Kidana-pond meet wished to visit it again. Therefore, a full day program was organized covering other water-pools of Antarjal, Shinay, Sanghad and salt pans near Jogninar Temple in addition to pond of Kidana in a circular route.

At the beginning of our trip, around IFFCO-Udaynagar , we noticed various perching birds like Little green bee eater, Indian roller, Greater Coucal (Crow-Pheasant), partridge, kite etc.

Thereafter, we  spent nearly two hours of early morning at the pond of Kidana, and shot photographs and videos as well. As it was early hours (about 9 am onwards) the birds were settling at their positions to take morning sunbath. Ordinarily after a chilled night, birds warm up themselves  before getting involved in other activities.

After Kidana, we left for the lake at Shinay village. We had expected little or no activities at the lake as it was noon time, however we spotted a large flock of White Pelicans getting ready for taking off.

Thereafter, we moved to village Sanghad, where we visited a dam constructed some years back , by creating a barrier to natural water flow of a river(or some water stream). The area was peaceful and pleasant as it has not yet been affected by the Sunday-picnic-traffic.

After having lunch at Jogninar Temple we visited the salt-pans near to the temple in anticipation of finding Greater Flamingos. Disappointingly, what we did find were scatted birds. It took some time and some walking before we found a small group of flamingos, making the visit decently worthy.

While returning we visited small pond of Antarjal. Shockingly it was dried out even before the end of the winter, causing scarcity of water for coming hot summer.

This time it was decided to visit the pond of village Kidana, which is very near, almost merged with town of Gandhidham. While checking the aerial view of the Kidana pond in Google Map, we were bit disappointed as it showed water pool as just a large ditch.

However, when we visited the pond of Kidana, we got more that we expected.There was a small island in the pond, which offered safe shelter to the birds. At least 10 different species were spotted at one place like 1. Painted stork, 2. White pelican, 3. Large Egret, 4. Grey Heron, 5. Darter /Snake bird, 6. Shoveler duck and drake, 7. Large Cormorant (?), 8. Little Cormorant, 9. Spoon bill etc.

Also there was party of little and large cormorants diving and hunting in flock. It was interesting to see the little cormorants sub-merging to hunt fish almost simultaneously and re-appear.

White Great Pelicans and plover fished together and it was astonishing to see the one of the largest bid compared with other smaller birds like spoonbills.

It was surprising to find so many species at the pond of Kidana, which is almost unknown to anyone. On given good attention this spot can be good tourist and bird-watching place.

Jain temple overlooking the village houses © Rajesh Lalwani

Village of Tera, Kachchh is around 125 kms. from Gandhidham. The village has been declared as the Heritage Village by the Government of Gujarat recently.  PCoG organized photo-meet at the village, to cover its heritage and natural beauty.

Pond adjoining to the Inner-Fort (Darbargadh) of Tera, Kachchh © Jayesh Bheda

Tera Jaagir (estate/barony) was considered as the largest having about 40 villages under the Jaagir. The village also boasts inter-connected three ponds , Chattasar,  Sumerasar and Chatasar,to provide for irrigation and consumption for entire year. In fact the name the village Tera derives from of having  Tre-Tara (Three-ponds in local ,Kutchi, language) at its out-skirt.

Inner Fort, Village Tera, Kachchh © Jayesh Bheda

The village also has outer-fort with four-feet thick wall to securely defend the village as well as inner-fort (Darbargadh) for the Jaagirdar. Half of the portion of the outer-fort is either removed on account of the growth of the village beyond the outer fort, or destroyed significantly during the earthquake of 2001.

Tera Jain Derasar. © by Prabhat Sharma

The ancient 250 years old Jain Temple (Derasar) is known for colorful carved  glass paintings. The village is also one of the pilgrimage of Jain’s Nani Panchtirthi. The village is also famous for its handi-craft of  block printing, mirror work, embroidery etc.

The three ponds and surrounding light-wooded jungle provide good hosting grounds for various birds and animals.

However, despite the declaration of the status of Heritage Village, the village fails to attract much attention it deserves. This can be partly accounted to inactive promotion from the government’s side and partly for non-availability of basic tourist infrastructure like food, water and guest house etc.,  Therefore, mostly tourist pay a fleeting visit to the village.

Grey Heron and Spoonbills © Jayesh Bheda

Another photo-meet of PCoG was decided to organise at Village Vira, Kachchh. In the way a small pond was found before Village Shinay and provided some good bird-watching opportunity and spotted (1) Grey Heron (2) Spoonbills (3) Blackwinged Stilts (4) White wagtail (5) Desert Wheatear.

Lunch at the Farmhouse © Rajesh Lalwani

After reaching Jogninar Temple we picked up our host Naranbhai of Vira who also assisted as the local guide. He took us to Temple of Harsiddha Ma of Village Vira and thereafter we reached to the farm of Bhikhabhai. There we had good photo shoots with birds and buffaloes. Birds we spotted at the farm were mainly consisting plenty of Cattle egrets and some lonely Paddy bird and Black winged stilt.

Flamingso Taking-off © Prabhat Sharma

While returning from there we spotted packs of Greater Flamingos at the salt-pans near Jogninar Temple.

This time we all three , Prabhat, Ajay and myself were present and a new member ,Rajesh Lalwani, also joined us.

Large egret with stretched wings. © Ajay Shamra

We reached the Temple at about 10:30 am and decided to have look of surrounding area for suitable location. When we went to the salt-pans which 2-3 kms ahead of the Temple we found good variety of sea-birds present there. So we decided to get down there and roamed the area on foot. However on most areas were covered by salt-pans we had little scope for roaming.

Out of many birds watched we identified (1) White Pelicans (2) Indian (Western) Reef Hereon, (3) Herring  Gull (4) Greater Flamingos (5) Black winged stilt, (6) Black tailed godwit (7) Pied Kingfisher (8) Large Egret and many mud probing birds.

Herring Gull and Blackwinged Stilt © Prabhat Sharma

Good thing was that birds ,being at salt pans, were acquainted with the human presence and therefore it was quite easy to see them from closer distance.

Panoramic view of Shinai Lake © Jayesh Bheda

The lake hosted good variety of water birds. It took some time for us and birds to get adjusted with the presence of each other. Among the birds spotted , we were able to identify a few. Like (1) Large Egret (2) Little Egret (2) Black Winged Stilt (a common water-bird) (3) White Pelican (4) River Tern (5) Little Cormorant (6) Common Coots (7) Pond Heron or Paddy Bird (8) Green Bee Eater (9) Pied Kingfishere. There were many which we were unable to identify/click.

Abandoned circuit house at Shinai Lake © Prabhat Sharma

The lake could be very good spot for bird watching and photography with sufficient gears and patience. There is old abandoned circuit house at the shore of the lake. However, with some interest from concerned authorities could be developed as tourist place.