Trekking – yet another thing that
I am not fit for. So when, a friend of
mine invited me for a trek to Khanderi and Underi forts I was not sure about attending. But, then I was told that being Sea forts there won’t be much
trekking involved. It will be an easy trek. It was easy indeed and that gave me some time to admire the
biodiversity of the region. This is difficult in case of in medium and hard level treks.
The name Underi is derived from –
Mouselike (probably because of its small size and made up of black rock i.e.
basalt) and Khanderi is derived from the God – Khanderaya. Earlier they were also called as Hennery-Kennery.
Prior permission is required from
maritime board to visit these forts. A better option is to join some trekking
groups that take care of such permission. I went with Youth Hostel Association
- India’s Mumbai Unit.
 |
| 'Thal Jetty' |
We started from Mumbai at 6.45am by
private bus and it took us about four hours to reach the Thal jetty of Alibaug
district. 'Thal' jetty was full of hustle bustle of fishermen and fisher-women. It
was a huge tamarind tree that grabbed my attention. It was standing in the
middle and looked very old. It has nice sitting area surrounding it which must
be used by locals as common place for chitchatting. There on an electric wire above
were sitting nearly 8 Drongos devouring the leftovers of fish catches. There
was a huge pile gathered of varieties wasted dried fish (fish manure) and it
was a ‘fishy feast’ time for Drongos.
There were gulls too but they preferred to stay closer to the water (sea).
 |
| Getting in and out of boat at Underi |
 |
| Underi Fort |
A motor boat took us ahead from
here to Underi fort first and then to Khanderi fort. Since there is no accessible jetty for this fort one has to jump on the boulders from the boat. The experts tried to maintain the minimum distance between fort and the boat. Underi is built up by making
walls of huge quadrangular rocks kept on each other and gaps in between them
filled up with smaller rock pieces. Almost no binding material used
to hold them. It’s simply a matter of trigonometry and perfect timing
while fixing/piling them together. This fort was built by Siddhis. The fort like many other forts in Maharashtra is in ruined state but,
whatever is left is worth watching. Here again my attention was grabbed by a
Fig tree first and then the fort. This fort has three fresh water tanks, few escape
routes. Afterwards when I did some referencing it has cave with carvings and an
underground prison that was used earlier. I didn't see any of these personally.
There are few cannons scattered here and there.
 |
| Walls of the fort |
 |
| Cannon @ Underi |
 |
| Arch. No packing material can be seen |
 |
| Fig tree |
Before visiting the lighthouse we
saw a huge rock (probably basalt) giving out a metallic sound when hit by
another small piece of rock. It could be because of metal content or it may be having
some pores. But, I really don’t know if basalt shows such characters. I will be
glad if someone could explain it to me. This fort campus also has few temples
with ‘Vetal’ being the most famous and still in worship by fishermen of nearby
areas. This fort also has a Christian Cross ad Buddha temple. There are many
cannons scattered like that in Underi fort. Three of them are with the
carriage. There is a grain storage area too. There was a pair of kestrel flying
in the sky, few trees of Indian Jojobe and grass species. One should not expect
a great variety from such places but, one must visit these places at least
once.
 |
| Lighthouse |
 |
| Cannon @ Khanderi fort |
 |
| Few more scattered |
There are two things that one
would notice strongly immediately after entering these forts. First is huge
amount of garbage scattered all over including thermocol, plastic plates and to
make it worse the beer bottles. The second thing is - useless names marked on rocks.
These “souvenirs” must have originated from the visitors who come here to “admire”
the beauty of the area. These hopeless habits are ruining the discipline of the
forts. A visit to such places should help in making the visitor a better disciplined
human being and not to show how bad a human can be. There are lots of things
going around in having ‘Chhatrapati Shinaji’s' statue in the sea but what’s
the point in having/supporting Chhatrapati’s statue anywhere in the sea when we
cannot maintain the dignity of his history? Cleaning and maintaining his forts
will be a better tribute to this great hero. Think about it…
 |
Contribution of 'Civilized' people
|
 |
| Some more contribution |
  |
| Thank you for reading |
No comments:
Post a Comment