Sunday, 18 June 2017

Lonar Crater - Only Known Hyper-Velocity Impact Crater on Earth



No matter how big or small any state of India is, definitely, a corner of it would be having a hidden gem, so is the case with Maharashtra. The state proudly boasts Lonar Crater as it is just one of its type on the Planet but still remains unexplored. The moment I read CRATER, I could feel my adrenaline rush at the highest level. The Crater can never be count in the places which you can visit on one of your innumerable usual trips. Perhaps it is my obsession for the offbeat places, that Lonar Crater attracted me like a magnet until I was sitting on its corner one fine morning.

Overview

In the first glimpse, it looked like any other lake in India, but Lonar Lake is a saline soda lake formed by a meteor impact. The lake maintains its mystery by not allowing anybody to identify its true age. Although people say that it is some 55000 years old but some new studies claim that it is much older. Until studies come to the conclusion, mystery remains unfolded. As the name itself suggests, it is created due to some meteorite impact, which hit the earth with a high-speed, itself weighed a few million tons. Due to this, the heat got released which was so tremendous in amount that it melted down the nearby rocks and water got deposited over time thus forming the lake.

Lonar Lake
Not sure about which came first -  Lonar Crater or Lonar Town but Crater is there just at the outskirts of the small town of Lonar in Buldhana district of state of Maharashtra, India. I could have a chance to explore this Earth’s largest and only hyper-velocity impact Crater in Basalt Rock during my Shirdi Trip. From Aurangabad, I and my friends planned to take a detour to Lonar.

How it happened                                 
                                                                                                    
It all happened when we were having lunch for the day on some road side Dhaba after visiting Ajanta Caves. It took us some 20-30 mins to come to the conclusion to leave for Lonar instead of spending one more night in Aurangabad. We hit the road only to find out that it was going to be a bumpy ride. But nothing matches the natural scenery, from a moving car, which includes myriad of green farms on both sides of the road, people working hard under the sun, and it was sufficient to divert my attention from the road to the beauty of my country.

It took us around 5 hours to reach Lonar. By that time sun had already set. Lonar being a small town has a limited number of hotels/guest houses. Although MTDC has one of its resort on one side of Crater, but it must be booked well in advance. So the usual hunt for the hotel started which ended on a small lodge named Gitam Lodge. We got two rooms; one of them was for Rs. 300 and another for Rs. 600 for a night. Lonar crater was about 3kms from our guest house.

First View of Lonar Lake
We decided to watch the glory of rising sun over the Crater and woke up pretty early in the morning. Unfortunately, we could not find any auto-rickshaw which we could hire to reach the crater for initial 15-20 mins. We were staring helplessly on every passing vehicle, but all in vain, so we started to walk. After 10 mins, fortunately, one auto-rickshaw stopped by our side and agreed to take us to the Lonar Crater. For him, it was a big fact to digest that we were there to explore the Crater but not for any kind of research.
   
The Trek

Either you can plan to trek on its periphery which is a total of 6 km or you can trek downwards in the Crater itself or try both. We chose the downward trek in Crater, which starts from the entrance gate of MTDC resort. No need to mention, with every step you get a closer view of the green lake. Lake is surrounded by the not-so-thick forest which offers you an additional opportunity to spot few of the rare species of the birds. Of course, people come here to spot a variety of birds, but we were not so lucky that time and could rarely spot few of the birds. Nevertheless, the forest was unusually calm and soothing, probably because of early hours of the morning and it was more than sufficient for us to enjoy the quiet surroundings. By that time, no other human soul was around but we three. We all kept moving, we with few inches and cameras with few clicks.

Way through Forest around the Lonar Lake
The Ancient Temples known as Yadava Temples

We could hardly walk for some meters only to find a few of the abandoned buildings which were looking like temples. In an attempt to sneak into one of them, we came across a ruined hall, which was quite intact in shape but so infested with bats that no single bat was visible owing to the darkness inside but screams of them had filled the whole of it. This condition of the ruin which seemed to be more like one of the oldest temples in the area was enough to pop up the thoughts if there is nothing that we can do to maintain our heritage, is this what we are going to leave for our future generations etc etc.

Shiva Temple
The thoughts did not end there & we found another temple in the vicinity which was damaged badly but we could go inside it and with the help of phone light could spot a Shiva Lingam in the sanctum. It was quite predictable that nobody had ever cared to even clean it. We stood there for some time drowned in our own thoughts but then like everybody else we also moved further.

Shiva Lingam
On the side of the lake, few other ruined temples still stand, probably waiting for their situation to get better in future or they might join other ruins which are already half submerged in the water of the lake.  

Other ruins on the side of the Lake
By that time, we realized that we had actually forgotten about the sunrise, got so engrossed in the beauty of the Crater and the surroundings. The color of the water is green due to the presence of algae. Water of the lake is highly alkaline. This alkalinity of water gives it a unique feature of being highly productive ecosystem and that’s why Lonar Lake is home to the several medicinal and aromatic plants and shrubs. Later we got to know that it is sunset, not the sunrise which is best viewed from the Lake. Probably next time I would be able to embrace it.

Kamalja Devi Temple

Eventually, we reached to the Kamalja Devi temple and relaxed for a while by the side of it. Kamalja Devi Temple is probably the only temple on the periphery of the lake which is still well maintained. The presence of so many temples, seemed more of an outcome of religious sentiments of the people living around in the older era, most likely because they were not aware of the uniqueness of the lake.

Kamalja Devi Temple
We entered inside the premises of Kamalja Devi Temple to seek blessings of the Goddess, a local deity of Lonar. Outside the temple is standing a statue of Lord Hanuman on the back of which a weird looking tree structure is standing. A gate is there, which is used to reach the main temple, which has a big bell on the top of it. Just opposite to the main temple on the side of the lake is standing a big pillar made of bricks & cement. It must definitely have some significance but I’m not aware of it. The architecture of the temple is still intact depicting the creativity of the people of that era as it is one of the oldest temples standing in Lonar.

Outside the temple, there is a big banyan tree which is having certain things tied up to its branches by the people who have their belief in the deity and wished her for the fulfillment of their wishes. Under the tree, two pairs of stones are kept on one another painted in orange color same as Lord Hanuman’s. Initially, we just noticed them but thought to enjoy the beauty of the Lake and went by the shore of it to take pictures. While we were busy with our cameras, we noticed a group of locals came and sat by the side of those stones.

Out of curiosity we reached there and asked them what they were doing. They told us that if they would move one of the stones of one of the pair, then other stone on another pair would move automatically. If it happens then their wish will definitely be granted by Kamalja Devi. We stood there and noticed their moves for a while. You can also try the same when you go there and let me know if you could move the stone.

The locals trying their luck
The Watch Tower

We started to ascend to the periphery by a different route which lies on the side of the Kamalja Devi Temple. The route was told by the locals. This route directly took us to the Watch Tower which is standing there to provide a full bird's eye view of Lonar Crater. We got to the top of the Watch Tower so that our camera could make good use of itself.

We came back to our rooms, got ready for the day and checked out the guest house only to explore Lonar further.

Other Places which you must visit with Lonar Lake:
  • Daitya Sudan Temple: It is a must visit if you are interested in Khajuraho Temples as it is said to be a mini replica of them. Built by Chalukya Dynasty anytime between 6th and 12th century AD.
  • Gomukh: It is a perennial source of fresh water with some masonry work done by Peshwas to channelize the water.
  • Motha Maruti Temple: As per legends, Hanuman Statue is said to be the actual piece of the meteorite and has magnetic properties.
  • Kamalja Devi Temple: The local deity temple on the bank of Lonar Crater Lake.