Yesterday night, I was shocked to watch and hear Arvind Kejriwal’s comments
in the TV show Aap Ki Adalat.

Earlier, I have been astonished to hear comments by General V K Singh about

the Supreme Court decision on his age dispute.

And I have been amused to see Asaram Bapu’s supporters ranting to the

media.

Right to contest elections and dream big

Every one, including ex Bureaucrats, and even Babas have a right to contest

the elections, and dream of becoming the Prime Minister, Chief Minister,

Minister, MP or MLA. But people who have retired as a General or Cabinet

Secretary or some other high position have handled very sensitive files and

documents. They should never talk about such things in public in private.

General V K Singh

How can he compare his age dispute with that of a 17 year old rapist?

The Supreme Court does not admit cases of age disputes of government

servants directly.

The affected person has to come through a serious of judicial hierarchy.

The Supreme Court did a favour in hearing the General directly. Probably this

should not have been done.

Then, there are procedures and a plethora of decisions on how age disputes of

Government employees should be agitated and resolved.

Commenting on the Supreme Court was in very bad taste.

Then he stated that he had evidence against a subordinate offering him bribe.

But he could never produce the evidence.

Then his statement in public  about the bribes and payments made to

politicians in Kashmir are actually crimes punishable under the Military Act

and the Official Secrets Act.

Surely he knows all this….

 Asharam and his son Narayan Sai

Asaram Bapu is in jail. His son Narayan Sai announced he will form an all India
political party. His supporters harp on the delay in filing the various

complaints.

There are so many charges against both father and son. There are a plethora of
illegal constructions……

If he is innocent, he should appear before the police and the and the courts

and answer the different questions.

Why is he running away?

 Arvind Kejriwal

In the interview yesterday, Arvind said that he was a Commissioner of Income
Tax when he resigned, and that every Inspector in the Income Tax

Department earns at least Rs. 1 crore per year……He left the department and

all this money for the common man.

 The fact is he was not a Commissioner – but only an Addl. Commissioner of

Income Tax when he resigned. All this ranting about the earning of an

Inspector of Income Tax of Rs. 1 crore is sheer bakwas. How many cases of

Inspectors amassing this kind of money did he come across? How many

inspectors did he take action against during his long career.

Then he did not mention that his wife continues to work in the same Income

Tax Department as Additional Commissioner of Income Tax. Personally, I do

not know them. But by the same logic, she must be earning tens of crores of

rupees every year. What is his answer to this logic?

Anna Hazare thought politics is dirty and chose to remain aloof. But Arvind

has entered Politics and he is already talking like a Chief Minister…….May be

one day his dreams will come true.

But as I said, he has a right to contest elections and dream big,,,,but without

telling silly lies about his ex colleagues and sub ordinates.

Now, an Income Tax Officer is arrested in Thane for taking bribe .
The following news item gives the facts.
At one time, lady government officers were expected to be honest. But times have changed.
Undisputably, there cannot be any gender discrimination. It is therefore only natural that the malaise has spilled over to the fair sex.

News Item

Woman I-T officer caught accepting Rs 1.5 lakh bribe

Nitin Yeshwantrao, TNN Nov 2, 2012, 02.44AM IST

THANE: A woman income tax (I-T) officer was remanded in police custody till Saturday after being caught red-handed by CBI sleuths accepting a bribe from a Thane builder. Accused Madhavi Chavan was picked up from the Wagle Estate I-T office late on Wednesday after she accepted Rs 1.5 lakh from Sandeep Salvi, a partner in a construction firm which has projects in Chiplun and Roha in the Konkan region.

Salvi and his associate Rajabhau Patkar had complained to the anti-corruption wing of the CBI in Mumbai about the alleged harassment and cash demand made by Chavan. They claimed Chavan had contacted them in September and said her superiors had issued orders for scrutiny of their tax papers. Patkar claimed Chavan asked them to pay Rs 10 lakh to cancel the scrutiny orders.

How to Fight Corruption

Corruption is big news today. A lot is being written and said about corruption.

Why is Bribery and Corruption Flourishing in India

Bribery and corruption (including similar activities in the private sector) are flourishing in India because the public is not only tolerating, but also encouraging, such activities.
People readily pay bribes to get work done….even if the work is totally illegal.
Parents seek prospective candidates for marriage with their children with an eye on the money they will make in future.
Worse, there is no stigma attached to illegal earnings.

How do you fight Bribery and Corruption

We already have several laws to fight all these……
We have a judiciary any democratic country can be proud of.
I personally believe that a new Lok Pal will only add one more layer of bureaucracy, a lot of expenditure, which we can hardly afford, and consequential corruption.

So how do we tackle the bribery and corruption?

• First…don’t pay bribe.
• Secondly, in case of government officials or public servants, file a complaint with the concerned Anti Corruption Department, and get the culprit arrested or caught red handed, while taking bribe.

Devrao Bawane, Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax Jailed

For those who disbelieve in the efficacy of the existing laws, I am attached a news paper cutting of today to show how effective our laws are.

Devrao Bawane, Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax and his inspector have been sentenced  to 5 years rigorous imprisonment for taking bribe of Rs. 1 lakh in 2009.
And what has not been mentioned is that they will also lose their retirement benefits.

Manicured Tea Gardens

I had heard a lot about Munnar, the beautiful hill station in South India.
And although I had visited places very close to Munnar, such as Theni (Tamil Nadu) – only about an hour’s drive from Munnar – due to shortage of time, I could not visit the place.

So, in early 2011, I decided to visit Munnar,

Munnar is a wonderful getaway in Kerala, nestling at an altitude of 1,829 metres, amidst luscious tea and coffee plantations, hills, valleys, lakes, waterfalls, forests, exhilarating walks, birds and animals. It is nicknamed the Kashmir of South India.
I booked a small suite in one of the finest resorts there. My RCI membership comes in handy on such occasions. I had to pay only nominal charges. I also booked return flights from Mumbai to Kochi three months in advance. So those too were cheap.

A two hour drive (120 kms) from Kochi airport took me into the heart of tea country. I was passing through beautiful tea gardens on all sides.

Tea

I recently read an article that tea drinking originated in India. Much as I would love to believe this,  this is not true.
Tea drinking originated in China almost 4750 years ago. It was known there as Ch’a. The word has been copied by India, Japan, Russia, Iran and the Middle East.

In A.D. 780, the Chinese tea expert Lu Yu published the first exclusive book on tea ‘Ch’a Ching’ meaning ‘Tea classic’. In this book, he has described various kinds of tea, their cultivation and manufacturing in China.
Though we had indigenous tea plants in India, commercial cultivation of tea entered India much later. In 1834, Lord William Bentinck, then Governor General of British India, appointed a Tea Committee to advise him on the feasibility of commercial tea cultivation in India. The first experimental samples of tea from indigenous tea plants were sent to Calcutta in 1836.
The rest is history.

Today, India is the world’s second largest producer (India was number one, but China overtook India to become the number one). And we have all kinds of tea….from the good old time tested orthodox “Britisher’s….cuppa tea” to all kinds of delicately flavoured exotic concoctions.

History of Munnar and its tea plantations

Munnar was discovered by John Daniel Manro, a British lawyer and planter, in the 1870s, when he visited the area on a hunting expedition. He immediately recognised the agricultural potential of the region.

In July 1877, Manro leased 581.12 sq kms (125,000 acres) of land from the Raja of Poonjar and formed a co-operative society called ‘North Travancore Land Planting and Agricultural Society’. The members of the society started farming coffee, sisal and cardamom.
Another European, A.H. Sharp, experimented with different crops such as coffee, cinchona, sisal and cardamom and concluded that the area was best suited for tea. He started tea plantations. Over the years, more and more tea plantations grew up.

In 1964, the Tata Group entered Munnar.  By 1980s, Tata Tea Ltd. had acquired most of the tea plantations to become the second largest integrated tea manufacturing facility in the world.

On 1st April 2005, Tata Tea Ltd. exited most of its plantations in Munnar and were succeeded by Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company Private Limited which now owns 7 extensive gardens covering 24,000 hectares, with an annual production of 21 million kgs of tea.
An interesting feature of this company is that its 12,000 plus employees are its shareholders.

What to see

There are a number of places in and around Munnar which you can visit. During the rains, the place becomes a fairyland enveloped in fog and mist andfull of cascading waterfalls.

But where ever you go, when ever you go, you will see beautifully manicured tea gardens. Left to nature, the tea plants grow quite tall. But for tea cultivation, they have to be continuously cut to 1 metre or so to encourage the growth of new shoots. The fresh tea shoots are pinched or clipped every three or four days from which tea is made.

The tangled leftovers of dead tea plants make wonderful show pieces. They are dried, sand papered and given a coat of varnish. You can put a sheet of glass on them and use them as beautiful ornamental tables.

Tea Museum  (2 kms from Munnar)

The Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company Private Limited maintains India’s first tea museum which is a must visit site for all visitors.
Here, you can learn about the growth of the tea industry – from the simple tea roller to the present fully automated tea factory of Madupatty.
You can learn about various aspects of tea processing and the operations that go into the making of black tea. You can also do some tea tasting.

You can see old-time bungalow furniture, iron safe, magneto phone, wooden bathtub, iron oven that used firewood, etc., and antique office equipments such as antiquated typewriters and PBX.
The museum has an iron-age burial urn from the 2nd century B.C. exhumed in the 1970s.

Near the entrance of the museum is a granite sundial, made in 1913 by the Art Industrial School at Nazareth in Tamil Nadu.

Mattupetty (13 kms from Munnar)

The Mattupetty lake and dam are situated at a height of 1700 mts. You can do some boating here.
You can visit the Indo-swiss dairy farm, which is close by. It has over 100 varieties of high yielding cattle.
Eravikulam National Park (15 km from Munnar)
PEERMEDE

There are other national parks around Munnar,  but the 97 sq. kms. Eravikulam National Park is the home of the endangered Nilgiri Tahr, a rare mountain goat. Originally established to protect the Nilgiri Tahr, the Park was declared a sanctuary in 1975. Its status was elevated to National Park in 1978.
The total number of Niligiri Tahrs here is estimated to be over 1300 – about half the world’s population.

The park is breathtakingly beautiful. The Anamudi peak (2695 mts), the highest peak in South India, is located in the Southern region of the park.
If you have the time and inclination, you can walk up to the top.

Marayoor (40 kms from Munnar)

Marayoor is the only place in Kerala that has a natural growth of sandalwood trees.
I visited the sandalwood factory of the forest department, the caves (muniyaras) with murals and relics from the New stone age civilization and the children’s park spread across a hectare of land under the canopy of a single banyan tree.
You can also visit the Thoovanam waterfalls and Rajiv Gandhi National Park nearby.

Dolmens

You can see muniyaras (caves) dating back to the New Stone Age near Kovilkadavu village. These caves contain rock paintings of great archaeological importance.
But what was more interesting for me were the dolmens, or old burial chambers, consisting of four erect stones covered by a horizontal capstone.

Neelakurunji flowers

You can also see the beautiful Neelakurunji flowers here, but there is only one hitch. The spectacular blue blooms cover the entire mountainside.
But they flower once in 12 years and the next flowering will take place in 2018.
So you will have to wait for another 7 years.

Reaching There

 The nearest airport is Kochi.
Kochi also has a railway station and is well connected by road also.
You can see a map of the place and get other information from the
following site:
http://www.munnar.org/munnar-maps.php

Summer Resort

The word Munnar is derived from the Tamil words moon – aar meaning three rivers because Munnar is located at the confluence of three rivers – Mudrapuzha, Nallathani and Kundala.
The most appropriate description of Munnar would be tea country. But it is much more than that.

The Britishers of South India had made Munnar their summer resort.

And it really rains during the monsoons. The rains here are 2^nd only to Cherrapunji in Assam.

You will surely fall in love with the place during the rains.

When I was Chief Commissioner of Income Tax I, Chennai in 2005, I was invited to Baba Ramdev’s discourses in Chennai and to receive his blessings.
Some how, I could not attend it.

The people who had invited me, and the people who were organising the discourses, were the big business men, including tax evaders, and even people who were facing prosecution for tax evasion.
 Baba Ramdeo Pix (Click here to see picture)

If anyone sincerely believes that all Baba Ramdev’s followers are the honest exceptionalists – the pure Ganga Jumna of the society, he is obviously mistaken.
The fact is that most honest people are poor and can hardly afford the luxury of doling out huge donations with which the big religious and pseudo religious institutions are built.

Even in the good old days, robbers and dacoits used to offer a portion of their loot to Goddess Kali and other deities, when they returned back from their exploits.
The business people traditionally kept a small percentage of their income for God (Dabba – the donation box as it used to be called).
Whether this was done to appease the Gods. or lessen their anger…. I do not know.
 
Background

An online internet search about the Baba gave me the following facts:

Baba Ramdev  was born on Dec 25, 1965, as Ramkishan Alipur Yadav in the house of an ordinary family of Gulab Devi and Ram Nivas Yadav in Ali Saiyad Pur village of Mahendragarh district in Haryana state of India.

He attended school through the 8th grade in Shahjadpur.
Thereafter, he joined a gurukul in Khanpur village (Hoshiarpur, Punjab) to study Sanskrit and Yoga.
In 1995. Ramkishan Alipur Yadav, renounced worldly life and became a Sanyasi – adopting the name Swami Ramdev. 

Then he went to Jind district and joined the Kalva gurukul and later imparted free Yoga training to villagers across Haryana.
He travelled the Himalayas for several years (for which no details are available) before settling down in Haridwar.
He discovered several medicinal plants in the Himalayas (for which no details are available) which he uses for treating his patients.

He starting teaching Pranayama –  techniques of breath control and popularised the practice of Pranayama.

His discourses and talks are broadcast on Indian TV channels. Baba Ramdev claims that he was a paralytic prior to taking up yoga, but this claim has never been verified.

So far so good. No one can have any problem with Baba Ramdev and his teachings relating to Pranayama and other yogic exercises.

HIV & AIDS – claim of curing

On Dec. 22 and 23, 2006, on India TV and a couple of other TV Channels, Baba Ramdev said that Yoga Pranayama and the Ayurvedic and Herbal Medicines suggested by him can control and cure AIDS.

He added that the CD4 Cell count of the people affected by AIDS, which had fallen to 50; 100; 150 have gone up to 400; 500; and even 600, which is quite normal. He added that even the people with CD4 Cell count of 5 to 10 have benefited. CD4 cells (T4 count, T-helper cells) are a class of immune cells that gradually get depleted in HIV infection.

On Dec. 22 and 23, 2006, India TV also showed a lady, declaring openly, in one of his Yoga Science camps to have been cured of AIDS. This lady had come to know that she had AIDS, after she lost her husband due to AIDS.

As a result of these press reports, the Indian Union Health Ministry sent a cease and desist order to Baba Ramdev; and medical NGOs threatened to take legal action against him.
Baba Ramdev responded by saying that he had been misquoted.
(The usual ploy of politicians).
His clarification was that Yoga and Ayurveda together can alleviate the suffering from AIDS, not cure it.
He also added that Yogic education was preferable over sex education in response to the AIDS crisis.

http://www.articlesbase.com/book-reviews-articles/swami-ramdev-biography-and-information-4517995.html – claim of curing

Cancer

In some of his addresses, Baba Ramdev said that Yoga and Pranayama have been successful in curing 200 cancer patients and he is ready to give evidence. (But no evidence has ever been given.)

Quoting from page 55 of the monthly magazine “Yog Sandesh” (English) September 2006. issue.
This magazine is also available along with all the Back Issues of Yog Sandesh Monthly, online at
http://www.yogapranayama.com/yog%20Sandesh.htm

Sanyasi

Baba’s actions have left me in daze. I am blundered and traumatised.
I have always believed that a Sanyasi is one who has renounced the world.
A Sanyasi is one who is free from all attachments – family, friends and enemies.
I am reproducing the definition of Sannyasa from Wikipedia. (Definitions in other treatises are similar)

“ Sannyasa (Devanagari, sannyāsa) is the order of life of the renouncer within the Hindu scheme of āśramas, or life stages. It is considered the topmost and final stage of the ashram systems and is traditionally taken by men or women at or beyond the age of fifty years old or by young monks who wish to renounce worldly and materialistic pursuits and instead dedicate their entire life towards spiritual pursuits. In this phase of life, the person develops vairāgya, or a state of dispassion and detachment from material life. He renounces all worldly thoughts and desires, and spends the rest of his life in spiritual contemplation. One within the sannyasa order is known as a sannyasi (male) or sannyasin (female)……

During the sannyasa phase of life, a person abandons fire (Agnihotra, allowed to the householder stage of life, the Grihastha ashram). It means that during sannyasa ashram, one should not cook, perform fire rituals or take heat from fire. Sannyasa focuses only on the self and spirituality and not even the gods (as abandoning fire suggests). Symbolically, a sannyasi casts his physical body to fire by wearing saffron robes at the moment of taking up sannyasa itself, thus freeing his soul, while yet alive. Hence, sannyasis are not cremated after death (as most Hindus are) but may instead be buried.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannyasa 

Death Penalty for corruption

Baba Ramdev has recently taken up the issue of corruption.
He has demanded that corrupt people should be dealt with nothing less than death penalty.

I am shocked….a sanyasi asking for the death penalty…..and that too, for a crime like corruption, when nation after nation are abolishing the death penalty.
There is something wrong, somewhere. I would have expected a sanyasi to save life, not take life.

Ramdev and Politics

Baba Ramdev has launched Bharat Swabhiman – a new political party.
Baba has clarified that his party has no intention of contesting Assembly elections, but only Lok Sabha elections.
(His aims are high and lofty ….Delhi and the Parliament itself).

“I do not have any ambition to be the Prime Minister or the President of India. I will never actively participate in politics”, he claimed.
(But none the less he will form a new political party)

 http://www.goanews.com/news_disp.php?newsid=1077 

Baba Ramdev would himself play the role of Chanakya and not be directly involved in politics. I shall not be a contender to power personally, said the Yoga Guru.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-22/patna/28131728_1_baba-ramdev-check-corruption-yoga-guru 

Well this is what Sonia is doing…..

Back to Sanyas

Baba Ramdev….
With all the humility I can muster, mingled with all the knowledge and experience I have gained over 65 years of life, I implore you to keep away from politics, corruption, black money and such mundane things of life.

We already have far too many politicians.
Please stick to what is your rightful duty…..as a sannyani…..meditation and yoga.
Otherwise, you will be like the misled donkey….na ghar ka na ghat ka.

The Finale

Sunday morning, the police moved in and cleared Ramleela Grounds.
The Baba had crossed all limits.
Flying on private jets, owning thousands of crores worth of land and other assets, making a mockery of all that a Sanyasi is supposed to do, he was literally blackmailing the Govt.

But for all this, the Govt. of India itself is to blame. Sending three ministers and the Cabinet Secretary to meet him was a very very wrong decision.
It was sending out all the wrong signals.
Any way, better late than never.

Baba Ramdev – will someone convey this message to him

Rajbala lies paralyzed because she supported you.
The least you can do….call it ethics, sanyas, or good will,
give her a reasonable sum for her loyalty.
You should compensate her…..

The Tibetan Refugees in India have been facing a peculiar dilemma.
Even though many of them are born in India and acquire Indian citizenship by birth, they have to describe themselves as Tibetan Nationals.
They are issued identity cards by the Indian Government permitting them to stay in India.

They face peculiar problems such as getting passports, etc.

Recently in:

W.P.(C) 12179 / 2009
Decision Dated : December 22, 2010
NAMGYAL DOLKAR ….. Petitioner
versus
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS ….. Respondent

the Delhi High Court had occasion to decide such a case.

The Court observed that:
“23. The amended Section 3(1)(a) reads as under: ―
3. Citizenship by birth:- (1) Except as provided in sub-section (2), every born in India, –
(a) on or after the 26th day of January 1950, but before the 1st day of July, 1987.‖ (b) …….
(c) …..
Shall be a citizen of India by birth.”

The Court went on to hold:

“28. In the considered view of this Court, the above ground for rejection of the Petitioner‘s application for passport is untenable. As already noticed, the concept of  ‘nationality’ does not have legislative recognition in the CA.

The Petitioner‘s describing herself to be a Tibetan ‘national’ is really of no legal consequence as far as the CA is concerned, or for that matter from the point of view of the policy of the MEA. The counter affidavit makes it clear that the MEA treats Tibetans as ‘stateless’ persons. Which is why they are issued identity certificates which answers the description of travel documents within the meaning of Section 4(2)(b) PA. Without such certificate, Tibetans face the prospect of having to be deported. They really have no choice in the matter. It must be recalled that when her attention was drawn to the fact that she could not hold an identity certificate and a passport simultaneously, the Petitioner volunteered to relinquish the identity certificate, if issued the passport. That was the correct thing to do, in any event. The holding of an identity certificate, or the Petitioner declaring, in her application for such certificate, that she is a Tibetan national, cannot in the circumstances constitute valid grounds to refuse her a passport.”

I am giving the link to the full judgement: 

http://lobis.nic.in/dhc/SMD/judgement/22-12-2010/SMD22122010CW121792009.pdf

This is a most welcome judgement.  

 

Earliest Human Settlements in India

The Bhimbetka Caves, or Bhimbetka Rock Shelters, (also known as ‘Bhim Baithaka’ meaning Bhim’s seat), located at the southern edge of the Vindhyachal Hills, 45 km south of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, contain 15,000 year old Stone Age rock paintings – the earliest evidences of human life in India.The rock paintings, which are in remarkably good condition even today, take us on a journey into time and tell us about the lifestyle of our ancestors over a period spanning thousands of years.
Mythology

According to mythology, when the five Pandavas were banished from their kingdom, they came and stayed here in these caves. They even built a palace at Lakhajuhar made out of lac.
Bhima used the massive rocks for sitting. This is why the place is also called ‘Bhim Baithaka’.

Discovery

Based on information gathered from local adivasis (tribals), Bhimbetka was first mentioned in Indian archeological records in 1888 as a Buddhist site.
In 1957, Dr. V. S. Wakankar, an archaeologist from Vikram University, Ujjain stumbled upon these rock formations. They were similar to those he had seen in Spain and France.
Archaeological excavations over the next 16 years yielded more than 700 such shelters dating from the Lower Palaeolithic Age to the Early Medieval Age.
The site spread over 10 kms in length and about 3 kms in width has more than 700 rock shelters, of which more than 400 have paintings. But only about a dozen caves are open to tourists.


Rock Art and Paintings

Over thousands of years, the caves evolved into excellent rock-shelters – ideal sites for aboriginal settlements – highly secluded and safe atop the mountains.
The rock shelters and caves of Bhimbetka have a large number of interesting paintings which depict the lives and times of the people who lived in the caves, including depictions of animals, communal dancing and drinking, birth, death and religious rites.Archeological studies have revealed a continuous sequence of Stone Age cultures (from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Medieval), as well as the world’s oldest stone walls and floors.

A broad chronology of the finds has been done, but a detailed chronology is yet to be created.

The paintings have been done mainly in red and white with occasional use of green and yellow.
We get an insight of the life style during those days.The superimposition of paintings shows that the same canvas was used by different people at different periods of time.Archeologists have classified the drawings and paintings under five broad periods.

Period 1 – (Upper Paleolithic): These are linear representations, in green and dark red, of huge figures of animals, such as boar, bison, tigers, rhinoceroses and stick like humans.

Period II – (Mesolithic): These figures are comparatively smaller in size.
The stylised figures show linear decorations on the body.
In addition to animals, there are human figures and hunting scenes, giving a clear picture of the weapons used – barbed spears, pointed sticks, bows and arrows.
There are depictions of birds, animals, drinking, musical instruments, communal dances, pregnant women, mother and child, and men carrying dead.

Period III – (Chalcolithic): Similar to the paintings of Chalcolithic pottery, these paintings reveal that during the period, the cave dwellers of this area were in contact with the agricultural communities of the Malwa plains and exchanged goods with them.

Period IV – (Early Historic):
The figures of this group have a schematic and decorative style and are painted mainly in red, white and rarely green.
There is association of riders, depiction of religious symbols, Tunic-like dresses and scripts of different periods.

Period V – (Medieval): These paintings are geometric, linear and more schematic, but show degeneration and crudeness in their artistic style.
For the first time, we find paintings of the Brahmanical Hindu Gods like Ganesh and Natraja in these rock shelters.

The cave dwellers prepared the pigments they used by combining manganese, haematite, soft red stone, wood coal and plants. They made brushes out of pieces of fibrous plants.It is amazing that the paintings have not faded even after thousands of years.

What to see

The caves vary in sizes. 
Some are very small while some can accommodate 100 people. The cave formations are unique.
One cave resembles the shape of a tortoise and the entrance resembles the mouth of a snake.You must visit the Zoo Rock Cave, which is the most famous of the caves.
These rocks have painting as old as 10,000 B.C. depicting various animals like elephants, antelopes and horses.You must visit Barkhera (7 kms from Bhimbetka).
This is Richest Open Air Stone Age Site in South Asia.
You can see Thousands of Acheulian Tools Scattered in the dense teak forest.
How to Reach

Air

Bhopal (45 Kms from Bhimbetka) is the nearest airport having direct flights from Mumbai, Delhi, Indore and Gwalior.

Rail

Bhopal has a railway station with trains from Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.

Road Bhimbetka is situated on the Bhopal-Hoshangabad National Highway No. 69.
It is well connected by good roads.

Best Season

July to March.

Recommendation

This is a must see place for everyone.
Nature has carefully preserved these clusters of natural rock shelters within massive outcrops of sandstone, above dense forests.
The Bhimbetka Rock Shelters are unique because the paintings and tools allow us to see the pattern of life over thousands of years.
They show the gradual transformation of man from a cave dweller to agriculturist and trader.
They also graphically depict the evolution of tools.

The Bhimbetka Rock Shelters bear a significant resemblance to similar rock art sites in other parts of the world –  Kakadu National Park in Australia, the cave paintings of the Bushmen in Kalahari Desert, and the Upper Paleolithic Lascaux cave paintings in France.

The Bhimbetka Rock Shelters were recognized as a World Heritage Site in 2002.

You can see more details and information at the following site:
http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_whs_rockart_bhimbetka.asp