Pre-historic rock art in Aravali hills puts Rajasthan village on tourist map
Jaipur (PTI): Nestled in the Aravali Ranges, the sleepy Hajipur Dadikar village in Rajasthan's Alwar district is now buzzing with activity as historians and tourists flock to take a look at the pre-historic rock paintings in its hills depicting scenes of dance, hunting and animal figures.
Discovered in 2001, the paintings are spread over an area of 10-12 sq km.
District Tourism Officer Tina Yadav said rock paintings in the hills of Hajipur Dadikar have been included in the list of tourist places in the district.
"Dadikar has emerged as a new tourist point in recent years. Tourists from more than 50 countries have visited this place," Tejpal Gurjar, a local tourist guide said.
He said the rock paintings depict swastika, lion, elephant, sword, peacock, fish, sun, shepherd grazing goats, fighting animals, animal skins and other wild animals.
Tractor-trolleys are used to take the tourists to the last motorable point and from there the trekking starts.
"The site is now getting popular. Several tourists who come to Alwar, which is famous for the Sariska tiger reserve and other sites like Silisedh, reach Dadikar for trekking and for the rock paintings," he told PTI.
According to the guide, tourists from Australia, America, Mexico, England, France, Thailand, Poland, Ireland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Bangladesh, Turkey, Indonesia, Italy, Canada, Spain, Sri Lanka, Japan etc. have undertaken trips to the hills to see the rock paintings.
Nirvana Bodhisattva, the founder of Nirvanavan Foundation, who has been living in Dadikar for nearly 30 years, said the government should make every possible effort to preserve the site.
"This is a historic site and many people have started visiting it. The government should make all efforts to preserve it," he said.
Dr. Neeta Dubey, member of the Indian National Trust for Art Culture and Heritage (INTACH), an organisation working on heritage conservation, said the subjects of the prehistoric rock paintings in Hajipur Dadikar are human figures, scenes of dance after hunting, scenes of hunting with nets, animal figures like bulls, lions, elephants, goats, nilgai etc.
Principal of the Government Higher Secondary School Bhaveda, Alwar, Dr. Komal Kant Sharma said information about the rock shelters and rock paintings of Hajipur Dadikar area was given to archaeologist Premlata Pokrana by a bank worker, which was based on information given by shepherds.
An extensive research work was then carried out in this area.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
