 |
| The crater Lake |
NASA pictre of the crater lake
Dr. Gaitonde blew some froth off from the espresso coffee, took a sip from the tumbler and continued.
"Some 52,000 years ago a huge Meteor which was lurking in the space crashed on the surface of Deccan plateau of India near a village LONAR with the impact of 6 Mega Tonne bombs , creating a crater of about 1830 meters in diameter and 150 meters deep. Such impact would have been have caused by a 60 meters long and 2 million tonnes heavy Meteor." Incredible, I thought. The imagination of the explosion chilled our spine . I looked at my friend,
Tommy Singh. He was staring at Dr. Gaitonde, his eyes wide open and jaw dropped. How it could be? But we had to believe, as Dr. gaitonde gave all the details, facts and figures. He was an astronomy expert from
Hydrabad and was visiting LONAR on a scientific tourism cum exploration. We met him at our hotel foyer at
Aurangabad where we
had come to attend a wedding.We instantly decided and requested him if we could accompany him, to which he readily agreed. Next day we left for LONAR on a day's visit to see this nature's wonder!
It was 150 kms drive from
Aurangabad on a reasonably good road. In about 3 hours we were at
Lonar village, which was about 2-3 kms from the crater. Town was a chaotic, noisy, dusty mish-mash of grey cement structures and multipurpose shops selling an assortment of useful products, mostly in garish plastic.
We proceeded immediately for
LONAR LAKE which was formed in a huge elliptical crater. 'The Lonar Lake had a mean diameter of 1.2 kilometers (3,900 ft) and was about 137 meters (450 ft) below the crater rim. The meteor crater rim was about 1.8 kilometers (5,900 ft) in diameter. The circular depression had a saline water lake in its central portion.'
It was a beautiful sight!
This crater was the worlds oldest meteorite crater and only meteorite crater in basaltic rock! This was One of the Five Largest Crater in the World!!Shame on me! I thought. Do I call myself to be an Indian? I felt disgusted. There I was, next door to
Mumbai which was my home since years and I didn't know that one of the world's wonder existed so close to me, in my own country!
It was difficult to track round the lake with muddy area from the rim to the lake. We took a position at a point and looked at the amazing feet of nature. The view from the rim was exhilarating. Dark clouds threw shadows on the placid lake. It was windy up on the rim but hardly a ripple disturbed the surface of the lake because the lake lies in a bowl about 500 feet below the rim.
Later we strolled around. The forest encircling the crater was host to many species of aquatic birds like flamingos, moor hen, coots, and dab chick and so on. Peacocks were to be seen making spectacular glides from tree to tree. Unlike the rest of the country they did not even need to forage upon the ground; so plentiful was the insect and small prey population in the vegetation. The trees grew to be rather tall and they formed a canopy that filters out most of the heat. We could even see dung beetles the size of our palm busily rolling, right in our path!
 |
| The Temple |
There were many temples nearby, mostly in ruins now. What interested us mainly was
'Daitya sudan Temple' built in 10th century, dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The walls and pillars of the temple were full of elaborate and detailed carvings of significant passages from Indian myth. It was locally known as 'The old stone temple' and that was what you had to ask if you wanted accurate directions. The temple was built on the three-tier philosophy of earth, sky and heavenly levels of representation. A marvelous sculpture, indeed!!
Leaving behind Dr. Gaitonde at M.T.D.C. Hotel (a Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation establishment), we started back to
Aurangabad, amazed, elated and deeply proud of our country which has such nature's miracle like
Ajanta and
Elora caves and now this LONAR LAKE
Getting There- The nearest airport is Aurangabad situated 122 kms away.
- Nearest railhead is Malkapur on the Mumbai-Bhusawal Line.
- Mumbai-Aurangabad-Jalna-Lonar, 600 kms. Lonar-Buldhana, 95 kms. Lonar-Mehakar Taluka, 23 kms. Lonar-Aurangabad, 145 kms.
Where to stay:MTDC Hotel, Lonar
To get a car and for to visit Lonar-contact travel agent in Aurangabad, Maharastra, India:
A/
http://www.blossomtravels.co.in/
B/Lonar Travel Agent, Shop No.2,Plot No.220,Tirupati Complex,Beside Crazy Bite. N-1,Cidco,Aurangabad, ☎ 91 240 2481955.
References:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonar_craterhttp://www.unb.ca/passc/ImpactDatabase/images/lonar.htmhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=8654