Barda Hills

कुछ दिन तो गुजारो गुजरात में ||

Spend a few days in Gujarat ! - "Amitabh Bachchan"

Sharing about Barda Hills - A hidden gem of Porbandar, Gujarat.

Barda Hills comes under Barda Wildlife Sanctuary which is located in Gujarat. It is situated 15 kilometres from Porbandar and 100 kilometres west of Gir National Park.

Previous to its 1979 establishment as a wildlife sanctuary, Barda was a private reserve for Porbandar and Jamnagar Districts.

- Location: Barda Wildlife Sanctuary (192 sq. km area)

- Nearest Village: Ghumli (Direction)

- District: Porbandar

- Altitude: 79 meters to 610 meters (260 feet to 2025 feet) above sea level

- Coordinates: 21.8083° N, 69.7117° E

- Population: 4,000 people in Barda, 750+ 'Maldhari' Families in 68 'Nesses'

- Ecological Support: 2 Rivers - Bileshwary & Joghri, 2 Dams - Khambala & Fodara

- Available Flaura: Southern Tropical Forest, Northern Tropical Thorn Forest, Euphorbia scrub, Dry deciduous scrub, Dry Bamboos

- Available Fauna: Rattle Snake, Kobra Snake, Chameleon, Blue Bull, Chinkara, Black buck, Wolf, many birds but Spotted Eagle and Crested Hawk-Eagle - These two are rare/ endangered can be find here. (*Barda was known to have had a population of Asiatic Lions, but they deserted the area towards the end of the nineteenth century. Hard Luck!)

- Important Contact: Conservator of Forests Office, Porbandar, Tel: 0286-2242551*

Water Source at Hill

Maldhari and his Ness with Bileshwari River and Bulls

Bird of Barda Eco Life

The whole region is hilly terrain with slopes and rocks. Kileshwar temple is a prime attraction of this area; temple was improved by Great King 'Jamsahib' of Jamnagar.

Journey starts from Ghumli where ancient temples are prime attraction. Ghumli is base of Barda Hill. You can find Information boards on all attraction by Government of Archaeology as all this monuments are very old and protected. Destroying, defacing or removing any part of protected monuments by any persons are liable for 3 months of imprisonment or 5000 INR Fine.

Ghumli's major attractions:

Ganesh Temple: Built in starting of 10^th Century in 'Saindhava Period'
Navalakha Temple: Built in 12^th Sanctuary, temple is an important example of 'Solanki Architecture'. Its base is the highest of that period, and it has a rare two-storeyed mandapa. Nine Lakh Rupees were used at that time to build this temple.
Sonkansari Temple: Minimum ornamentation. Total 8 Sonkansari temples were built in 8^th Century

Navlakha Temple

Me with my Brother

Group of Sonkansari Temples

From Ghumli you can trek further more to Barda Hill through nesses and forest. After trekking few kms, one can reach to top of Barda Hill. From there whole surrounding area and Ghumli village visible with great panoramic view.

From Barda Top descend to Base and visit to Kileshwar Temple near to Dam. Here nearby one rest house is built up for kings to stay in summer time. It's like summer palace for them. Near Kileshwar Temple you can see check dam (small dam). Where people used to do activities in dam water. It's safe depth of dam water to bath.

Summer Palace

Photo Source: Google Anil Joshi

This is total of 15 around km trek from Ghumli to Kileshwar Temple.

Archaeological sites bring artistic thoughts in your mind with lot of surprises and attraction towards this place.

This is just one place from Gujarat-INDIA. There are many other 'hidden gems' which either you don't know or I may don't know. But let's write an informative articles through 'EBAC' and share your important experience through EBAC and we will provide you platform to publish.

I shared all details of Barda Hills Trip. Still any question regarding anything related to this place, comments and messages are most welcome.