Amidst Unspoilt Wilderness of Vasota

I woke up in morning, I felt city buzz. While going to office i faced Traffic, pollution. I saw cement jungle everywhere. Though i have a lot of structured sorroundings near home but situation in major cities like Pune is alarming. Hill slopes are destroyed, tree are cut, rivers are blocked and what we face is urban nightmare. Add to that carbon pollution, noise pollution, traffic chaos, inflation, corruption. Its unbearable. As the people in Arab world are doing it, it was time for me to revolt. I revolted and headed towards Vasota, a fort amidst koyana backwaters. and i was successful in my revolution. I am now refreshed and ready to survive in good old bad citiscape...
Everyyear i make a resolution. There were few things as a collegian or working single professional, i missed. Maybe due to sudden migration to kgp or for jobs. later due to business. Harischandra and Vasota are two 'dhams' for trekking enthusiasts. Add to that list; ratangad, rajgad, bhairi, rajmachi... many such dhams. I had done rajgad, torna, torana rajgad, shivthar rajgad, khandas-bhimashankar, lonavala bhimashankar, dukes nose, madhu-makrandagad, rayreshwar, umpteen times sinhagad, but somehow missed these popular slots. three years back i went to harischandra (blogged then here). I was impressed by grandeur of Kokankada, terrain, sorrounding peaks. It was amazing.
Last two years went dry ( i mean not that dry due to my focus on partying and socializing. also work pressure took toll) But year 2011, is year of health. Going back to where i was. Thus year started with two climbs to sinhgad. Solaris my health club has started Transform challengs. so lot of activities.
Had heard that Vasota fort will no more be accessable for trekkers after formation of Koyana Tiger reserve. So felt feb11 was my last chance. I searched web and found giridarshan having trek on 13th Feb. Called few friends, one of them joined. He being lecturer at sassoon, roped in his four students. Prepared on home side. Wife and daughter felt sigh of relief as i was supposed to be out of equation for more than 24hrs. (just kidding..) Got a sack, sleeping bag and headed towards meeting point which was in city at 10 30 PM. There were many takers for this trek maybe due to the tiger reserve threat. We had two bus loaded of trekkers heading towards vasota. After innumerable delays and pickups on route we finally took highway at midnight. Night was cold. I caught up with my school mate and shared memories of school, college etc. Had a great tea break on mahabaleshwar phata and reached satara at 1 am. I dont know for what they halted at satara for more than 30 mins. Finally we took Kaas ghat. Kas plateau in night is another story. In this blog here i had written about trip to Kas. Two buses in total darkness and steep turns can be scary.
Finally we reached Bamnoli at 4 am. Just two hrs to sleep. Found a corner at mandir. spread the sleeping bag. But before crashing, met the most important task during trek: Cleaning bowels. Open air task has to be accomplished in dark. so went near lake alone. It was scary experience. Managed that and slept amidst snoring of atleast 20 odd people and 60 odd trekkers. Cannot run away from crowd here also.
Next morning had a breakfast of pohas and tea. Launch people came in at 9 just like any govt office. Forest permissions are also granted on the spot as against my information that we have to get in prior from Pune. But staying at vasota is not allowed. If found there is penalty. So our fleet of 7 launches with 12 people in each started by 9 30. Expanse of Koyna dam is amazing. Right from Tapola till dam wall is nearly 60-70 km north south. add to that inward stream of lake on both east west side . some of them as long as 5-6 kms. Add to that its standard east west width of atleast 6 -7 kms. Huge water storage. Still Maharashtra suffers from power and water crisis in summer is another story. On west side of dam we have huge jungles and few hamlets cut off from world. Launch is only way to access these villages. Comparing vegetation on east slopes and west slopes indicated human touch of destruction on east side which is accessible. West side is unaccesible due to mountains and sahyadris on west (heavy climb from konkan side amidst treachourous mountains and valleys) and dam water on west. So we cross two valley on lauch and finally saw vasota fort on west. The extension of lake entered almost 2 -3 kms . As we entered the vegetation thickened out sizably and by time we reached Met Indavali, launch station and start point form vasota, it was thick forest which i had never seen maybe expect at Bhimashankar.
So we started trek at 1030. There is forest office and small gate to enter. Once we cross that its jungle all the way. We never saw sunrays till almost we reached top. We say vegetation, shapes, butterflies, birds but did not see any other wild life (fortunately or unfortunately). Saw a cat which people claim to be udmanjar. The gradient is steep but taxng. Lack fo sun makes it easier also cool breeze helps. maybe a km ahead you have a natural water stream which is last water source till you reach top. The water is amazing. The jungle noises soothe you all along. I pitied those who had their earplugs on with some music. Thankfully inspite group being large, chatterati was less. After one and half hrs of forest climb we reached open spot from where we could see how far we had travelled from starting point and could see jungle, dam waters, mountains. The view is amazing. i cannot describe, neither photo will give that feel. Walk amidts forest is an experience and summary of trek. We reached on fort at 12 30. There is nothing atop the fortexcept water tank, and old dilapidated temple and some basement structures. It seems Britishers destroyed the fort when they captured it. while they have preserved silliest of castles in scotland, they have ruined our forts and history. For that i will never pardon them (as if it counts). In fact when it was ruled by marathas, britishers were kept there are prisoners. Imagined being imprisoned on fort thousands of km away from home that too in such landscape. some guts. This fort was captured by shivaji during conquest of Javali from mores. since then till british took over was always with marathas. Thankfully no mughals or shahs.
then we headed towards babu kada which is a great view. It might be second tallest rock formation after kokankada on harsihchandra. On top of it is old vasota which now is very diffficult to reach except when you have a guide. View of kokan on west is amazing.
Giridarshan had provide lunch of chinese mix veg, roti, shrikhand. amazing. Lunches on trek are always great.
Then we saw machi, where we could see nageshware cave. Its 3 km ahead and has old cave and mandir. we started climb down at 3 and reached launch by 4.30. Climb down takes toll on your knees. But same forest experience helps.
We took launch , caught few naps and reached bamnoli by 6. Bus took us to satara where they ahd ordered thalis at rajatadri. Reached pune by midnight
24 hrs of extreme bliss amidst some scenic landscapes and thick forest...

People on Streets

I was closely following Mass uprisings in Arab world. We Indians hardly know about lives of people in Tunisia or Yemen or egypt (leave aside few songs shot near pyramids). What resulted in such an extreme step taken. How was is made possible for people to communicate and organize protest. Who led the people? Was there any financing involved to sponsor this? Role of web2.0 is also matter for research.
Very intriguing indeed. But thats beyond the point.
Will there be such situation in India? Can we imagine people coming on streets and protesting like Arab world? Though one can argue that such situation happens when people's basic human rights are abused by dictators or financial situation leaves no hope situation for common man. On both count India seems to be doing ok. We have a so call democracy atleast people are 'made' belived to be the one in control through means of well organized polls. Human rights of individuals are atleast portrayed to be respected through sound legal system in place. Financially, apart from very high inflation, indian economy is doing good. Inflation and corruption though can spark a discontent but as in past we have seen govts toppled democratically (remember delhi electons won on onion prices). main reason is that inflation is steady and gradual process. Due to market econmony demaind supply mechanism do balance out.On corruption, we indians seem to take it in stride to be part and parcel of life. Its our social psyche to assume things to work that way. we have also seen govt toppled (eg bofors) but hardly any cause for public outcry. Its more a media phenomenon now a days.

But there are primarily two things that can topple the cart. One is lack of indian will to fight terror, and second is so called India-Bharat divide.
As we had seen in past, post 26/11 we had people marching streets of Mumbai saying enough is enough. There were series of blasts in 08 which led to 26/11. People were threatened that if they leave out of houses in morning, they were not guaranteed if they would return safe. (remember a dialogue from wednesday movie?) If Indian govt in future faces such challenge then people will again take up to streets. Govt seems to be in control or we are plainly lucky to have escaped with only two blasts (varanasi and pune) after 26/11. It must be latter as nothing has changed in system . Though we see police alerts or some modernization of tools.

The second is India Bharat Divide: We have already seen this struggle resulting in thefts, kidnapping, dacoity, rapes. The crass consumerism in cities has created craving amongst have nots so they try to use these ways to get there fast. We have seen unabted migration from villages to cities. The governance does not reach remote villages thus leading to new rulers like Naxalites to take over the power vacuum. In cities, welfare policies are as well nonexistant and add to that perpetual greed of land mafia on resources. It will be hard one day to manage law and order in cities.

Having said that will people in india take to streets. Political parties have already shown that they can halt india to still using bandhs and violence . But to have 100% success, they need issue which will be acceptable to all. We are so divided that there cannot be a single cause that will bind us. Those who rule the IT and media tools are not interested in politics so social networking revolution does not mean in india. Only interest garnering topics will be out of bollywood or cricket.

so rulers in india, dont worry about such uprisings, we indians are very resilient.
Carry on with your plundering...