National Bullock Cart Trekking Program in GIR

This is 1st national trek in Gujarat, organized by YHAI.

YHAI its celebrating 100 years of youth hostels internationally & 60 yrs in India.

To promote enviorment conservation it has organized eco-friendly trekking programme.

It would be an amazing experience to be the guest in the only home to the Great Asiatic Lions.

Participants would also experience the culture of rural india & the slow, simple & yet so comfortable life.

Besides Lions, the Gir Sanctuary region is also famous for its vast forest area which is spread over in 1412 sq. kms. 


more information just click the link below :

http://yhaindia.org/files/adv_programs/description/BULLOCKGUJARAT.html

or contact:

on 98254 33144

Historical Exhibition in Junagadh

Exhibition on Collections of Mahatma Gandhi & Junagadh's History. The exhibition would be an opportunity to visit the precious collections of Coins, Stamps, Pictures, etc in remembrance of Mahatma Gandhi, Picture Galery taking you on a rich heritage tour of Junagadh State & its Rulers. Many other topics like Conserving Enviorment & Social Awareness would be discussed through various collectives. We Cordially invite everyone to visit the exhibition. Date: 02nd Oct to 04th Oct Timings: Morning 10 to 01 & Evening 04 to 09 hrs. Venue: Red Cross Hall, Azad Chowk, Junagadh.

Gir nominates fourth in 7 wonders of India - Gujarat episode

A national series about rediscovery of wonders from all around India, '7 Wonders of India', is NDTV channel initiative. As name suggests, it gives chance to highlight wonders across the country to not only citizens of India, but also to the millions of tourists who come every year to make their dream-visit to Incredible India!

In this series they started to roam around all the states of India to explore heritage sites to national parks, natural marvels to magnificent architecture, from most famous to quite unknown ones. Bringing all of them together, to the big number of spectators...

Junagadh, proudly made it's place in Gujarat series with two of it's major attractions, which makes literally millions of tourists to visit them every year, namely...

1) The Junagadh Fort...

&

2) The Gir Asiatic Lion Sanctuary...

However, marvels are scattered throughout not only only India, but in Gujarat itself as well, giving each nominee a tough competition. This led to selection of Gir Sanctuary of these nominees. The video below shows final 7 grand tourist attractions of Gujarat, with Gir proudly standing at fourth place!

This blog, it's authors, supports & all Junagadh lovers heartily convey their wishes that Gir to make its place for national final 7 spectacles as well!

Preparations started for Girnar Parikrama

To know what it Girnar Parikrama, pl refer :

http://junagadhtourism.blogspot.com/2008/09/girnar-parikrama.html

Preparations have been started at big scale for parikrama this year. It used to have much of tourists attraction and thus traffic, so authorities need to be prepared to serve all at their best. This year it is going to be held during 9-15 November.

The collector had called a meeting to prepare action plan for the parikrama, which aimed to facilities and security as well. The basic facility includes logistics, electricity, water & health. Also, they aimed on regularisation of auto-fare, traffic & about maintaining law & order. Like every year, it was also decided to keep watch on pressure point for the comfort of visitors. Notabely this year, tobacco & plastic pouches of water are totally banned.

Some 7 km (1/5 of the total route) of the parikrama route is more or less damaged due to heavy rains in late monsoon this year. That is also to be repaired by 5th as per decided.

Yesterday, on 13th October 2008, school-students helped authorities to collect plastic waste along the route during a cleanup. They collected more than 1000 kgs of plastic waste leaving the trek better than before. Same excercise used to be held before & after Parikrama every year.

So, Junagadh is getting prepared for one of its exclusive (& big!) celebrations, which is going to increase the population of city (0.5 million) to three-fold, of course for a week of 9-15 November!

Hotel Information for Tourist Season 2008-09

Junagadh has been a very popular place to those who visit Gujarat. In fact, the variety of interesting places has made it one of the must visit city for travellers of all kinds, from adventurers to pilgrimage. You can keep visiting this blog for the famous and newly developing interesting tourists sites in & around Junagadh. Budget-making and tour-plannings are main part of pereparations for any tourist. & Junagadh is dotted with Hotels, Resorts & Guest-houses to accomodate you as per your budget! In this post, we would like to present you a teriff-summery for some of the hotels in Junagadh, pl benefit & keep commenting... Notes: - All the information is given for tourist season 2007-08 (December-April) - All the teriff is given approx, yet we tried to keep it most accurate - It is always advisable to check information, by contacting personally - This is just for referrence & we take no responsibility behalf of anyone - The names are given alphabatically- All the fare are in Indian Rupees (INR), exclusive of tax, for 24 hrs, with chekout time 10am/12pm in general Hotel Anand Bus Station Road Ph: +91 285 2630657 Categories> Fare 2-Bed (non AC)> 400 2-Bed (AC)> 500 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hotel Leo Resorts Girnar Taleti Road Ph: +91 285 2652844 Categories> Fare Delux> 2080 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hotel National Kalwa Chowk (cross-roads) Ph: +91 285 2620736 Categories> Fare 2-Bed> 300 4-Bed> 450 AC> 725 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hotel New Somnath Railway Station road Ph: +91 285 2627574 Fax: +91 285 2650919 Categories> Fare (Single Bed/Double Bed) Non AC(regular)> 300/350 Non AC(Delux)> 400/450 AC Delux> 650/700 AC suit> 750/600 - charges per extra person: non AC 150, AC 200 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hotel Paramount Kalwa Chowk (cross-roads) Ph: +91 285 2650582 Categories> Fare (Single Bed/Double Bed) Non AC(regular)> 300/400 Non AC(Delux)> 350/500 AC Delux> 550/700 Super Delux> 700/900 Presidential Suit> 800/1100 - charges per extra person: non AC 100, AC 200 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hotel President Railway Station road Ph: +91 285 2625661 Categories> Fare (Single Bed/Double Bed) Non AC(Delux)> -/400 AC(Delux)> 700/750 AC Delux 101> 900/950 - charges per extra person: non AC 100, AC 200 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hotel Shikhar Palace Jayshree Cinema Road Ph: +91 285 2626596 Categories> Fare Non AC(Delux)> 500 AC Delux> 800 Super Delux> 1100 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hotel Somnath Railway Station road Ph: +91 285 2625655/2624645 Categories> Fare (Single Bed/Double Bed) Non AC(regular)> 300-350/450-500 AC (regular)> 550/650 AC Delux> 650-700/750-900 AC Suit> 900/1200 - charges per extra person: non AC 100, AC 150 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hotel Vishala In front of GSRTC Central Bus Station Ph: +91 285 2631599/2633106 Web: http://www.hotelvishala.com/ email: hotelvishala@gmail.com Categories> Fare (Off season/Tourist season) Non AC> 500/750 AC (delux)> 700/1000 AC (standard)> 1000/1500 AC Suit> 1500/2000 - Off season: Feb-Sep / Tourist season: Oct-Jan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Lotus Hotel Railway Station road Ph: +91 285 2658500/1/2 Fax: +91 285 2658503 web: http://www.thelotushotel.com/ email: info@thelotushotel.com Categories> Fare (Single Bed/Double Bed) Standard> 800/1050 Delux> 1000/1250 Super Delux> 1200/1550 Luxury> -/1750 - charges per extra person: 250

Old architectural tresures of Junagadh city

Junagadh has been narrated with architactural art, which is a fusion of islamic, colonial, kathiawadi and portugese architecture. While on the walk aroud city one may often get such glimpses as shown here.

Dana pith (grain market)

Minarets of Jama mosque

Magnificent Balconies

Arc-gate at Circle chowk

The Jama mosque

Gate-arc near court compound

Tower-clock near Railway station

Old architectured buildings in row

Presenting : Girnar Sanctuary!!

All the Asiatic lion fans & conservationists, its party-time out here...

...'cause yesterday, Gujrat State Forest and Environment Dept. Secy Mr. S. K. Nanda has conveyed that the state govt. is committed for the conservation of Asiatic Lions. As to show the willingness isn't just a tiger (or lion!) of paper, the govt. has declared a package of Rs. 40 crore to develop the declared sanctuary area, a total of 180 sq km of Girnar Forest range as Girnar Sanctuary!

Earlier in 2004, govt. has also declared Mitiyala forest range as sanctuary area. Now sum-up with Girnar Sanctuary, the total sanctuary area for lions available will now increase to 1640 sq km!

It's notable here that, in fact earlier, the world-famous Gir forest was spreaded till Junagadh & was attached to Girnar range. With little bad-times in between, the two in question got separated due to human activities. Though, as response to good efforts of conservation in Gir, the number of lions shoot up day by day. Proving all the theories of ecological niche & survival, the lions came out to find suitable habitat themselves. With occasional conflicts to human interests, some of them has been settled very well in Girnar range in last some of the years. The decision of Govt. can thus be called wisely & timely taken for sure, raising hopes to nurture them better with yet another shelter after Gir.

Also, this is great help on issues of transferring (shifting) some of the lions outside Gir (to prevent inter-breeding, area-shortage & frequent conflicts among pride) to potentials like Baradaa hills (Porbandar dist.), Velavadar Sanctuary (Bhavnagar dist.) and others incl. well-disputed Kuno Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.

All in all, would be even greater help if govt. think & act over seriously, to create patches of sanctuaries nearby like this & create corridors for safe movements. After all, its seen here only, that lions & humans can live friendly!

Google Map showing Mount Girnar Range Forest area; On left, Junagadh city

also check : http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1164481

Mount Girnar Steps-Climbing Contest 2008 (courtesy : Paavan)

Originally posted at blog 'Historical Junagadh City' by Paavan. Interesting, must say !! click here to read full article: http://historicaljunagadh.blogspot.com/2008/05/junagadhsaurastra-girnar-mountain.html & who's won?!!! read it here.. http://historicaljunagadh.blogspot.com/2008/05/girnar-junagadhsaurastra-mountain.html So, keep your fingers crossed till next year... & three cheeres for the winners!!!

The Junagadh Fort - Uparkot

Spectaculor views of The Old Fort of Junagadh, where once upon a time most of the citizens lived in; also, a very protactive hide-out during siege situations with crocodile-inhabitated water channel all along its periferi. Improved time to time by the successors, now a days it serves as a great tourist spot with its fascinating structures like Buddhist Caves, Stepwells, Food & Water reservoirs. It also displays Guns with range of more than 5 kms and whole fort is dotted with the gun-balls all around. In short, worth visiting once...

Junagadh Introductory Snap-tour