Phurlijharan, Kalahandi

kalahandi picnic place

Dokarichanchara
 
Kalahandi is one of the most famous historical and ancient places in India or Odisha. Dokari Chanchala is a picnic or tourist spot located in Kokasala village  on the border of Kalahandi and Nabarampur districts. It is a unique place, totally different from other attractive tourist places in Kalahandi. Dokari Chanchala is famous for two famous waterfalls, Dokaridhara Falls and Vanyaragumala Falls (or Bhairabdhar Falls). Moreover, the nearby historic Gudahandi caves make this place even more famous. Gudahandi caves were named (Hundi) because of their appearance resembling a jaggery  pot (Guda). There you can see various prehistoric documents, pictorial inscriptions and drawings engraved on the stone walls. There is a famous Ram temple which is famous for being very ancient and old. Every year on Shri Ram Navami, a nine-day long festival is held there. Dokarichanchala Waterfalls Dokaridhara waterfall is 60 feet high and surrounded by beautiful stone hills. Maa Dokari Devi has also been worshipped at this place for a long time. 
 
Karlapat Sanctuary
 
Located in the southern district of Kalahandi, 12 km from Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district, Karlapat Sanctuary is situated in a dense area of ​​lush dry deciduous forests. The beautiful waterfall “Pullijaran” is created as a picnic spot for  local tourists and attracts many visitors from far away in Kalahandi district and its surrounding areas. Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary is home to a variety of wild animals and birds. The sanctuary is rich in wildlife such as leopard, gaur, sambar deer, nile gaur, muntjac, piglet, otter deer, various birds and reptiles. Labandar Located about 12.8 km from Bhawanipatna and accessible through a dusty road,
 
 
Rabandara
 
Rabandara is a place of great scenic beauty. It is named after a small waterfall in a mountain gorge. The surrounding panorama offers fascinating contrasts of landscapes: mountains and wide valleys, solid rocks and dense forests, and  the eternal silence of the surroundings interrupted by the music of autumn. Despite poor transport links, picnic groups sometimes visit  from Bhawanipatna as there is no market nearby. The stream that forms the falls almost dries up in the hot season. Downstream, its water is used for agricultural purposes in small irrigation projects.
 
 
Gudahandi
 
The Gudahandi hills are located near the small village of Harigarh, about 17.6 km northeast of Ampani, near the border of Koraput district. Ampani is 77 km from Bhawanipatna on the Nawarampur road. The Gudahandi range has several ancient caves with paintings dating back to the distant past. Harigarh is quite remote, and the 17.6 km from Ampani is a  cart path, some of which passes through dense forests. All three small hills have a curved length and are collectively known as the Gudahandi range. The northern and southern hills meet in the east, leaving between them a farm-like valley that opens to the west. This valley is paved with huge  stone blocks sloping towards the east. At the foot of these hills, facing the valley, a row of caves lie. All the caves are small except the northern one. Some appear to have been formed by human hands, but generally they appear to have been formed by nature itself from red slate. Red and black pictographs are found at the entrances of some  caves in the southern part of the country. These have not yet been fully explored, but are believed to roughly correspond to the pictographs of the Indus Valley Civilization. A few pictograph-like inscriptions have been found at Gudahandi in Kalahandi district, Bikramkol and Ulapgarh in Sambalpur district, and Naraj in Cuttack district. This indicates that prehistoric people were settled in Odisha. Just to the west of the valley stands a  third hill running north-south like a path. However, this hill is not connected to the other two, so the valley can be reached from both the north and south through a narrow pass. All three mounds taken together look like a pot with a lid. The name Gudahandi, meaning a molasses pot,  may have been derived from the impression its shape clearly conveys. A river named Behera flows beside the village. Across this river are the remains of a very ancient dam, which the locals call  the work of Bhima, the second of the Pandavas.
 
 
Phurlijharan
Pullijaran 15 km from Bhawanipatna, the Pullijaran waterfall is an all-year cascading waterfall of about 30 feet in height and has a unique charm. The colourful rainbows created by the sunlight falling on the  water particles scattered in the waterfall are very beautiful. The evergreen forests around the falls provide ample opportunities for group picnics.

Amathguda
Amathguda is a fort on the right bank of the Teru River, where the road to Balangir crosses the river. It is now an incomplete ruin. The remains of this fort  have not yet been explored, so nothing is known for certain. The fort was probably of considerable strategic importance, as it stood close to an ancient river crossing. A road with a low bridge over the river continued more or less along the old road. Another bridge was built just a few meters from the old, broken bridge. Part of this new bridge was washed away in the 1977 flood of the Teru River.