Pargad

May 2017

The previous day we had been to village Bhekurli, from where we could see the fort Pargad, thus we planned this trek to Pargad.

Pargad as seen from Bhekurli

On the day of trek we had started our journey from home #nikunj at 7.15 am.

Bike ride till village Morle took one hour. Entering the village we parked our bike at one house with their permission, made some enquiries about the route and off we were for our first monsoon trek of the season!

The Morle village is the base village for fort Pargad from Dodamarg tehsil of Sindhudurg. Pargad is the fort on border of districts Sindhudurg and Kolhapur of Maharashtra state.

The fort stood to guard Maratha kingdom from Portuguese, ruling in Goa then. The fort was maintained by Tanaji Malusare’s son - Raiba.

The other way to reach Pargad is from Patane village in Kolhapur district. This route is tar road and the visitors can take vehicles till the fort. There is also bus service from tehsil Chandgad of district Kolhapur till Pargad fort. However via Morle village one needs to trek approx 12 kms to reach the fort.

The trekking route starts from the Gramdaivat Temple of Morle village.

Gramdaivat Temple at Morle

The temple is surrounded by paddy fields and is clearly visible from top of the mountain. This gives idea to the trekkers as ‘from where’ they have started.

Tillari Dam & Base village Morle as seen from top

However ‘Pargad - the destination’ is not visible en route.

The trekking route is off road, simple to follow without confusion but very steep uphill.

Thus having trekked almost 10 kms; having crossed the dense forest and the waterfall; we found ourselves on sort of a plateau. Being at considerably high point of mountain.. it was such a sigh of relief! We were eager to see the fort Pargad now and there we met one local person.

As we enquired about where the fort is, his answer gave us the horrified surprise!

As he said, we were yet to walk one km off road, then about 2 kms of tar road and then around 60 to 70 steps of the fort. The first question which I asked him was “Is there any hotel at the fort?”. The response was positive.

The village Pargad is situated on fort itself and local people do provide food for tourists. There is also one MTDC resort on the fort.

We had started at 9 am from the temple and it took us 4 hours to reach Pargad. Basically the real task was to reach the base of the fort.

The fort is developed tourists destination. Has all facilities of parking, food, accommodation etc.

The forest department of Kolhapur has put up various boards displaying biodiversity of the area. The map of the fort at entrance, guides the tourists well.

The Bhawani temple is very well constructed. It showcases the idols of various influential people of the 16th century - from the time of the great Shivaji and their short description. The sabhamandap - hall of the temple is very specious.

At the entrance there is one hanuman temple as well.

The fort also has wonderful bronze statue of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

After seeing the whole fort and the scenic beauty around, the Sahyadri mountain ranges we returned via same route.

The uphill which took 4 hours was just a matter of 1 hour downhill. We started at 3.45 pm from the fort and were at base village Morle at 5 pm. This gives the idea of how steep the road is. While coming down we were almost hopping, jumping and running as we couldn't control the speed on the slope.

Reaching the base we mapped out the route and the fort in the hills. Took rest at the temple for 15 mins, thanked the villagers for guiding us and returned home #nikunj.