PLACES

PLACES

LESSER KNOWN PLACES

SAMBHAR – THE UNDISCOVERED WETLAND OF RAJASTHAN

Are you just plain bored to be in Jaipur? Are you dreaming of a place which is bordered with heritage temples, meandering country sides and a virgin lake reminding you of a mystic sea???? Then, make a trip to Sambhar. Take your family and go for a picnic cum trek.

We went to Sambhar in August 2004. The trip was absolutely unplanned. As we were driving through the busy buzzing M.I. Road in Jaipur, we suddenly felt the urge to make the heritage pilgrimage. To answer the call of destiny. A place both of us always wanted to go from our earliest childhood. Roark and me.

We reached Sambhar after a drive of about 100 kms or so from Jaipur, on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway. At a point on the highway about 60 kms from Jaipur we took a detour on the right hand road and drove through the best country sides which was so beautiful that we had to stop several times on the breath taking road to devour the lonely beauty of nature at its best. As we rode on we realized that Rajasthan Tourism and the average tourist had not yet explored this route and savored the taste of Sambhar. That how much they were missing out.

When we reached Sambhar township, afternoon was gossiping with monsoon clouds and drizzles came visiting us all over like memories. The township we found was very old and laced with innumerable heritage havelis – centuries old, and temples which remained unrestored and unseen by the world at large. Tourism could really develop this circuit and unfold the dream called Sambhar to the world, which is yet to be done.

The Sambhar Lake laced with silt of sand and salt smelt of salt and fish and sea. It took me back to all the sea shores I had visited before. Its beauty is really unspeakably surreal and surreptitious. The world wetland society had marked this lake as one of the wetlands of Rajasthan. There were a few birds, hopping and chirping as they proceeded on the fishing in the lake. Not a soul was around as it kept on drizzling fiercely and we got wet walking around the lake to meet our dreams. It seemed as if the reality had met the surreal, as we touched the salty water of Sambhar Lake.

The tourist guest house bordering the lake was really in shambles. It appeared that nobody cared for the place any more. A few govt. employees resting at the main gate side ushered us in politely for a cup of tea but pleaded ‘no tea available’ later.

SAMBHAR SALT LAKE
Picture courtesy Wikipedia

We hurried back in our black Santro through rain clad roads and lonely country side. We were happy to discover a heritage dream, a bit of Rajasthan that was unspeakably surreal and belonged to us for centuries.

POST-SCRIPT:- In 2004, the former Maharaja of Jodhpur, H.E. Gaj Singh had visited the place with the President of Welcome Heritage and had taken up the cause to develop it as a potential tourist destination of Rajasthan. The Sambhar enthusiasts want to develop the lake as a bird sanctuary, refill the Devyani Sarovar by drilling of tube wells and restore the Shakambhari temple among other century old temples there.

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