Chincholi Morachi (चिंचोळी मोराची)
Chincholi Morachi means Chincholi village of peacocks. 55 km from Pune near Pune-Ahmednagar Highway is Chincholi Morachi. It is a small village where one can see many peafowl feeding on grain crops grown by the villagers. Though the peafowl eat the grain crops, the villagers do not mind it. Early mornings and late evenings is the best time to find these birds. Peacock is our National Bird.
On 23rd. and 24th. December we had a wonderful stay at Mayur Krushi Paryatan resort. The owner, Maruti Ukirde has also a farm, where he grows Pomegranates, some vegetables and Jowar. He said for last two years his Pomegranate crop was ruined because un-seasonal rains and he suffered a loss of more than 70 lakhs. Heaps of damaged pomegranate fruits were plucked and were discarded.
One evening at our evening walk, we saw an old woman groping in mass, which looked more as dried leaves. On inquiring, we found that she was collecting Horse gram from the harvested pods. Her task looked more like finding a needle from haystack. We also saw a boy of about 10 years of age, carrying water for the goats and cattle. He was wearing hearing aids in both his ears. He had his sister - who was perhaps 4 years elder also feeding the cattle. We found that the parents of the children were not alive and their grandmother- the old lady cleaning horse gram- was looking after them. We bought some horse grams , pigeon grams etc from them. I also gave some cash to the boy for his education.
We heard about Ranjan Kund (रांजणकुंड) - naturally made depressions in rocks along a river. It was near Nighoj (निघोज) about 20 km from Morachi Chincholi. We went there by a taxi. There were many cavities like pots (Ranjan=large water pots, kund=ponds) on the rocks on the side of the river Malaganga (मळगंगा). There was a small suspended bridge. The commemorative granite stone inscribed with details had already fallen down. Most of the Kunds (cavities) were filled with plastic garbage. There was temple too, around which lots of garbage was scattered. A drug addict was enjoying his drugs on a rock.
I was lucky to see Balanites aegyptiaca trees on the roadside. These are very drought resistant and their fruit have medicinal properties. In Marathi these are called as Hingota (हिंगणबेट), in Hindi- Hingota (हिंगोटा), or Ingudi (इंगुडी). I also saw Clerodendrum phlomidis shrubs in full bloom growing wild. They had nice mild perfume. I was lucky to get some saplings of it. Another wild plant was Cassia auriculata (तरवड), of which i collected a few seeds. Acacia farnesiana (देवबाभुळ), also known as Cassie Flower, Sweet Acacia) shrubs were also in full bloom. Tiny, marble size and shaped yellow flowers are highly scented. Wonderful flowers of Calotropis procera (रुई) were also in full bloom.
Chincholi Morachi means Chincholi village of peacocks. 55 km from Pune near Pune-Ahmednagar Highway is Chincholi Morachi. It is a small village where one can see many peafowl feeding on grain crops grown by the villagers. Though the peafowl eat the grain crops, the villagers do not mind it. Early mornings and late evenings is the best time to find these birds. Peacock is our National Bird.
On 23rd. and 24th. December we had a wonderful stay at Mayur Krushi Paryatan resort. The owner, Maruti Ukirde has also a farm, where he grows Pomegranates, some vegetables and Jowar. He said for last two years his Pomegranate crop was ruined because un-seasonal rains and he suffered a loss of more than 70 lakhs. Heaps of damaged pomegranate fruits were plucked and were discarded.
One evening at our evening walk, we saw an old woman groping in mass, which looked more as dried leaves. On inquiring, we found that she was collecting Horse gram from the harvested pods. Her task looked more like finding a needle from haystack. We also saw a boy of about 10 years of age, carrying water for the goats and cattle. He was wearing hearing aids in both his ears. He had his sister - who was perhaps 4 years elder also feeding the cattle. We found that the parents of the children were not alive and their grandmother- the old lady cleaning horse gram- was looking after them. We bought some horse grams , pigeon grams etc from them. I also gave some cash to the boy for his education.
 |
| Balanitesaegyptiaca |
 |
| देवबाभुळ |
 |
| Cassia auriculata (तरवड) |
 |
| Clerodendrum phlomidis (टाकळी) |
