Sep 14, 2015 11:25 AM
2925 Views
Trekking and climbing in sahyadris is now just spreading like an inferno. The virus is catching up with majority of the mumbaites and puneities and with lots of trekking groups caarying out periodic treks in the region the upspring among the crowd towards trekking has no stopping. Many guide books giving information about the hillforts in sahyadris have been written.both in marathi and English.
Few of the well known marathi authors like P. K. Ghanekar, Anand Palande have come up with some good books….for marathi readers. The first of its kind…Trek the Sahyadris by Harish Kapadia was a trend setting book on sahayadri in English and it covered numerous hillforts and other places of tourist interests vested in the sahyadris….laying out a rough outline about the places…useful for English readers
However no book on sahyadris was written including each and every possible details, the villages, the forts, the raods …metalled and unmetalled…and even the tea shops….before The Sahyadri Companion in english or its marathi counterpart sangati sahyadrichi…
The book is of its first kind…both in English and marathi versions… Providing a comprehensive and detailed information about most of the forts vested in the sahyadris with a complete topgraphical representation in Coloured maps and coloured photographs. The book also dint forget to pen down the glorified historical moments related to the specific forts…and wherever possible mentioned its origin… The caves are meticulously grouped according to the eras and their perion of construction and are specified separately. The pinnacle section specifically mentions about the various pinnacled forts and mountains in sahyadris …and are garded for their difficulty levels and aided by the equipments required column… Not to mention the three supplements along with the book…
Time Table of the state transport buses grouped under major towns and depots…. A complete guide book on rockclimbing with explanation of the equipments and a know how of the terminologies. And a small first aid book…making the package complete. The book is compiled by many experienced trekkers of the Goregaon based group “young zingaro trekkers” with useful contributions from numerous treekers from other group. The book was inaugurated by the then honorary chief minister of maharashtra shri sharad pawar. I found the book so comprehensive that it is almost impossible to miss a route to any of the fort in the sahyadri after going through it. It jots don even the faintest of trails on the way and also accounts even for the tea shops. In short…
The main book displays. 1)About the companion… 2)Prologue…describing the geology, geography, geomorphic geometry, streams. Rivers, ecological perspective, sanctuaries, bird speciesflora and fauna, resprts. 3)Mythologicl milieu 4)Ethnic groups 5)History.ranging from the protohistoric through the satavahanas.marathas.moguls.british…peshwas.and till accounted. 6)Caves 7)Sculptural spledour 8)description of hills divided into various ranges and regions…with detailed road maps and fort maps and coloured photos. 9) pinnacle sections 10) index. The supplements…i.e timetable( giving detailed bus timings under depot Heads) first aid9 basics in case of emergencies) and rockclimbing(know how about the techniques and the equipments) give a detailed know how about their respective concerns…
In short this package is worth its cost….and not to mention that the complete book is scripted on glossy pages.
