Nature
is beautiful, nature is fun. Recently I got a chance in month of
April, to explore nature of Dehradun, Uttrakhand, it was my college
trip of one day.
I,
along with my teaching staff and my fellow mates left Dev Sanskriti
vishwavidyalay around 8 in the morning by bus. Dehradun is 49
kilometers away from Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalay. Before reaching
Dehradun we decided to pay visit to Shahasradhara, Sahasradhara,
meaning thousand fold spring,
which
was 63 kilometers away from our starting point. We reached there
around 10:45 in the morning, just 10 kilometers before entering into
Shahasradhara region the snake like road starts, which is full of
adventures and these roads are really surprising you never know what
is next, they have sharp curves mountain one side, trench on the
other.



It
took us 30
minutes to cover 10
kilometers.
We parked our bus besides the mountain where there was plenty space.
Next we headed towards
Shahasradhara,
this place
has magnificent beauty of nature where water drips from the limestone
stalactites,
making the water abundant in sulpur and thus the place is known for
it's sulphur springs. It is sulphur
water spring
of
relatively lower temperature than its surroundings.
It
is a warehouse of excellent beauty of caves,
waterfalls
and
terrace
farming
on
stepped
by
the local people.
After reaching this place we visited lord Shiva’s temple and took
blessings this
is
very old Shiva temple
known as Tapkeshwar
Mahadev Temple
along
with Drona
Guha (Guru Dronacharya's
cave) is present in this location, providing a good mythological
scenario and an essence of historical importance to the place. People
visit and worship here
, after that we enjoyed waterfall which was coming somewhere from the
mountains in small droplets, water was really cold and pure, it is
said it is the water of river Ganges, it seemed like it was raining,
we clicked few pictures there and than we entered in a cave which was
just near the waterfall. Inside the cave water was coming from the
roof, inside
the roof there were strange rock shapes, few looked like lord Shiva,
sheshnaga- the aasana of lord Vishnu and few were like lotus flower
and many other shapes. The beauty of the place was, even after being
hindu religious place even muslims were also enjoying the beauty,
which is a message to the society for unity. After enjoying in water
we decided mountain climbing to have better look of the place and
even dry ourselves, within 10 minutes we reached the top of the
mountain, this place looked even more beautiful from the top, houses
and shops were looking like small shirt buttons and roads were
looking like threads, we had a photo shoot there and decided to rest
there for a while. There was a water park nearby. After resting and
photo shoot
we
went downhill in the local market which was same as the other except
the prices, shopkeeper were selling goods on higher prices. While
coming from Shahasradhara we enjoyed ice creams and lemonade,
interacted with local people and came back to our bus. We
had our lunch in bus itself as everyone had their own lunch packets
with them.


After
that around 11:45 am we left for Dainik Jagran, Media house,patel
nagar. Patel nagar is 18 kilometers from Shahasradhara. At 12:45 we
reached Dainik Jagran office we were welcomed there by chief editor
Mr. kiran Kumar and deputy chief editor Mr. Satish. We had
interactive session with the faculty and gained detailed knowledge
about media house, duties and responsibilities of a journalist, we
cleared out doubts and querries.
I loved the mustaches of the security guard there in the office.
After
this session around 3 pm we left for Forest Research Institute
popularly known as FRI. This place is photo shoot hub for
youngsters, amusement place for kids and families and great place for
those people who are history freak and want to learn something new
every second. FRI
is located
between
kaulagarh
in
the north and the Indian
Military Academy
to
the south. The Forest Research Institute (FRI is an institute of the
Indian
Council of Forestry Research and Education
and
is a premier institution in the field of forestry
research
in India.
It is located at Dehradun
in
Uttarakhand,
and is one of the oldest institutions of its kind.



The
Forest Research Institute campus hosts the Indira
Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA),
the staff college that trains officers selected for the Indian
Forest Service (IFS).
It
was founded in 1878 by Britishers. FRI Dehradun is one of the oldest
institutions of its kind and acclaimed the world over. The
institute’s history is virtually synonymous with the evolution and
development of scientific forestry, not only in India, but over the
entire sub-continent.
Built over a lush green estate spread over 450 hectares, with the
outer Himalaya forming its back drop, the institute’s main building
is an impressive edifice, marrying Greco-Roman and Colonial
styles of
architecture, with a plinth area of 2.5 hectares. The building was
listed for a time, in the Guinness Book of Records, as the largest
purely brick structure in the world. The institute has a developed
infrastructure of all equipped laboratories, library, herbarium,
arboreta, printing press and experimental field areas for conducting
forestry research, quite in keeping with the best of its kind
anywhere in the world. It is 7 km from Clock Tower, on the
Dehradun-Chakrata motorable road and is of the biggest forest based
training institute in India. Most of the forest officers are a part
of this institute. The FRI's building also houses a Botanical Museum.
FRI
has around seven museums which are stuffed with forest products which
were made during British period and there are also the samples of
various insects, reptiles and remains of animals which were found in
the jungles of Dehradun. FRI
also contains a museum on forestry. It is open from 9:30am to 5:00pm
daily, which an entry fee of Rs
40
per person and a nominal entry fee for vehicles. There are six
sections in the museum:
-
Pathology Museum-
various
kinds of trees and their diseases and their cures
-
Social
Forestry Museum- beneficial for common people
-
-
Timber Museum-
various
timbers and daily use materials which were used during British
period
-
Non-Wood
Forest Products Museum
-
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| Main FRI Building |

After
exploring FRI and clicking a lot of pictures we set off for Buddha
temple around
5:00 pm.
It
is a Tibetan religious place located in Mohabewala, Clement Town,
Dehradun
just few kilometers away from ISBT Dehradun. Its also known as Buddha
Monestry or Buddha Garden.
Directly
from FRI we headed towards ISBT (Inter-State Bus Terminal) until we
reached signs for Clement Town. There are a few signs within Clement
Town directing one to the temple but as you approach the top of the
spire can be seen from some distance as can the large Buddha statue.
Its
one of the tourist place in dehradun with greenry everywhere.
Facts
about Buddha Temple: The
history of Buddha temple in Dehradun started in late 1965 when
it was built up as a replica of the original temple monastery in
Tibet. It was built as one of the four Tibetan religion schools and
was named “Nyingma”. The other three schools are called Sakya,
Kagyu and Geluk and also have great importance in the Tibetan
religion. It is believed that the temple had been designed and
painted by around 50 artists who took three years to create such
estonishing structure of golden paint.
There
are also shops, restaurants and a book shop. Most of the books are in
Tibetan language and are most likely meant for purchase by the large
Tibetan community that surrounds the temple.
The
interior of the temple is only open to the public on Sundays and one
can climb the stairs though the many levels with their ornate
decorations to reach the viewing platform. After reaching at the top
of the building one can a panaromic view of city dehradun.
Note
: Shoes must be removed before entering the temple and there is a
shoe check just outside available for a nominal fee. But other days
the garden and shops are open.
We
clicked photos and interacted with the monks in their disabled hindi,
we got to know that all the monks in the temple campus live inside
the campus itself and pray. One thing which I found very amusing here
was everything was written in Tibetan language but on the donation
box it was written ‘daan patra’ in hindi. I have no
intention to hurt anyone, its just my observation.
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| Flag |
There
were two temples, canteen, shops etc in the premise. The
architecture of this place is master piece everything is arranged and
maintained beautifully, the
architecture is the beautiful example of symmetric architecture,
there was a solenoid shaped structure which was believed if you
revolve it all your sins will be gone. It is a place of compunction
or repentance.
There
was a huge statue of some warrior on the top of one of the temple and
the statue of buddha on the other. When we entered the temple we a
wave of positivity was observed with immense silence and peace, this
place is perfect for meditation. After visiting temple and exploring
the places around and enjoying, we felt hungry and decided to have
snacks in the canteen. I and three of my friends had chowmein and
momos. They charged us Rs. 250 for the whole meal, here what I want
to tell you is hit for street food instead of canteen. Number one
they serve costly and tasteless food and second thing they have very
high attitude level, they won’t talk to you properly, will treat
you as they are serving you food for free and you are living on their
money. I have found this characteristics in
almost all north eastern people and Nepalese, they treat Indians with
inferiority at times even while my trip to Nepal I found the same
thing. Anyway this matters from place to place, need not worry. After
relaxing there we set off for our university, Dev
Sanskriti Vishwavidyalay
around 7:00 pm, playing antakchari,
& truth and dare.
It
was our educational trip to Dehradun but we transformed it into a fun
tour.
In one single day we
explored
four places completely without any hustle-bustle.
It was fun.
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| This is ME. |