Author: Arittro Dey

Khetri Nagar is a town in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan in India. Khetri is actually two towns, “Khetri Town” founded by Raja Khet Singhji Nirwan and “Khetri Nagar” which is 10 km away from Khetri.

Khetri Nagar is well known for its copper project, was built by and under the control of Hindustan Copper Limited. Khetri is also very well known by “Copper”. Khetri is part of the Shekhawati region. Population here is nearly about 22K and Khetriis the second largest Thikana in Jaipur State.

The king of Khetri Raja Ajit Singh of Khetri gave name of Swami Vivekananda, to Narendra. Also the dress of Vivekananda was given to him by Raja Ajit Singh. Another interesting fact is that Nandilal Nehru, the uncle of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was once the Diwan in the Khetri stately court.

Ajit Sagar dam [Bandh] is the famous Dam of the Jhunjhunu district, which is located in Bansiyal village and 11 km from Khetri. People come here to enjoy swimming and family tour, as this is the highest deep dam in Jhunjhunu.

Khetri Fort was built in 1754 by Bhopal Singh. It was named “Bhopalgarh” in his honour. It is an easy trek of 4 km from the base of the hill. The awesome view from the fort is breathtaking experience and also includes a marvelous but small marble temple. There is a copper mine called Chandmari, is a treat to eyes. This mine is now abandoned. It is a good and largest place in the Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.

Ramakrishna Mission Center was started in the year of 1958 at the palace of Khetri, which was donated by Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh. The palatial building has been named as “Vivekananda Smriti Mandir”, which houses the statues of Swami Vivekananda and Raja Ajit Singh. They were good friend also. Vivekananda started his journey to Chicago from Khetri. So this place is a must visit for the tourists.

Vivekananda Museum is another place to visit who loves art and culture by heart. Here to give a tribute to Swami Vivekananda on his 150^th birthday the Ramakrishna Mission proposes to open a majestic museum to portray his journey with every small part of his life. The work is still under the process. Gopinathji temple is a unique example of shekhawati paintings. The temple is situated in Khetri fort.

Pannasar Talab is an artificial lake in Khetri to catch water flowing down from the hills. In the North-West Corner of the Talab Ashram of Baba Makkhan Das Ji is also situated. Lots of Temples are situated in Khetri. So this is your place if you are a religious one. But the beauty of Khetri is marvelous.

How to Reach: Khetri is well connected by Road. Travel is possible to the city by public bus or private vehicles. Enjoy Khetri from New Delhi by with Gozocabs. It is also connected well with Chirawa, the nearest railway station and can also be travel by Road from Jaipur also. So make Khetri your destination for your winter.

Get ready for to pack your bags for winter to visit Assam, this time with a new way. Manas, at the base of the foot hills of the Bhutan-Himalayas in the state of Assam, with unique biodiversity and landscape is one of the first reserves included in the network of tiger reserve under project tiger in 1973.

Manas National Park is contiguous with the Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan. You can enjoy here its rare and endangered endemic wildlife such as the Assam roofed turtle and hispid hare. The name of the park is originated from the Manas River, from the goddess Manasa. You can enjoy the cynic view of the river which passes through the heart of the park. There is only one forest village, Agrang, in the core of the national park. Apart from this village 56 more villages are surrounded the park.

Manas is very rich in the population of Royal Bengal Tigers. Presently the population of Tigers are counted upto 60. You can enjoy the safari ride to enjoy the tigers to the park. For its well known for that in 1985, the Manas Wildlife Sanctuary was inscribed as World Heritage Site. Although a ride through the park may not gurantee a tiger sighting.

 About half of the park is covered by Grasslands of Terai and Bhabar type. There you can see more than 650 species of Angiosperms alone. The diverse habita of Manas is ideal home for specialized birds Manas boasts the largest population of the endangered Bengal Florican in the world and is also a great place to see the Great Hornbill. The National Park lists around 380 species of birds. You can enjoy here Red-headed Trogo, Marsh, Jerdon’s Babbler, Black-tailed Crake and Bristled Grassbirds and many more types. This is ideal for an wild life photographer as well as an ornithologists. The nature lovers will surely be in love with such a place.

 The Burma Monsoon Forests of Manas lie on the borders between the Indo-Gangetic and Indo-Malayan bio-geographical realms and is part of the Brahmaputra Valley Biogeographic Province. The combination of Sub-Himalayan Bhabar Terai formation with riverine succession leading up to Sub-Himalayan mountain forest makes it one of the richest biodiversity areas in the world. You can enjoy here with roofed turtle and pygmy hog also. Indian elephants and rhinoceros will give you the best amusement to enjoy the park as you can enjoy the safari with Jeep here. Leopards are also visible here.

You can enjoy here with both standard and luxury type of hotels as both of this availiable here. You should pre-book hotels to avoid the queues and headache for stay.

How To Reach : Manas is only 176 kms from Guwahati. You can enjoy the ride with national highway 31 through barpeta road to reach here. It is 326 kms from Siliguri also. Guwahati is the local railway station as well as the nearest airport.