Aerial Photography around the land of Pan Singh Tomar ( Morena District of Madhya Pradesh, INDIA ) - Mitavali, Padavali, Sabalgarh Fort, Bateshwara, Kankanmath, Rahughat Chambal, Jawahargarh Quila, Shahadpur Garhi, Bagchini, Bareh, Morena

Few weeks back, I did one of the exciting project in Madhya Pradesh. This was about Aerial Photography in Morena District of central state of India. We flew in a helicopter from Greater Noida to Morena and started the shoot with appropriate help from local folks. Let's check out this Photo Journey to see what all we did that day and captured in our Travelling-Camera.

After meeting few folks at Morena town, we started moving towards the locations we had to shoot. We had a Location map with all the coordinates on it. As we reached the first coordinate, we couldn't locate the place we were supposed to shoot. Pilot was already anticipating the same by looking at the coordinates mentioned. He asked one of the client delegate sitting with us and he was also clueless because map was created by someone else. It was really a bad state to be in. But mr Shekhawat, our pilot, made a guess on the basis of numbers written and finally located the place.

We explored National Chambal Sanctuary, Shanichara temple, the Fort of Sabalgarh etc. The district of Morena is situated in the Chambal River valley. This district has a few archaeological spots with some monuments from the great Hindu Epic of Mahabharata era to the medieval age. These monuments are the part of the country`s rich cultural heritage. Some of the places of interest in this district include Sihonia, Padawali, Kutwar, Mitawali, Likhichhaj, Pahargarh, Nurabad, etc.

There was a small sliding glass-door with Helicopter window. It was time to slide the door and take out the camera and shoot with better clarity. I had instructions to take the lense only and I could understand the reason after doing so. Air pressure was very high and my camera was literally shaking. After few shots, I had to take the camera inside and place myself in such a way that I could capture these frames well without any window-vignettes. 

The Kachwaha King Kirtiraj erected a Lord Shiva temple at Sihoniya, which is popularly known as the `Kakan Math`. It stands on a spot that is two miles away from Sihoniya in the north west of Morena district. Kakanmath temple was constructed by King Kirtiraj to fulfill the will of Queen Kakanwati. It's a 115 feet high and is built in the style of the temple sculpture of Khajuraho. Sihoniya is a holy place also for the Jains. In the east of the village, there are the ruins of the Jain temples of the 11th Century A.D. In these temples, there are statues of the Jain Tirthankars like Lord Shantinath, Arahanath, Kunthnath, Parshvnath, Adinath and others. The main temple has three statues; Kunthnath, Shantinath and Arhanath of 10 to 15 feet in height...

The fort of Sabalgarh is worth visiting in Morena district. The beautiful `Bandh` built behind the fort in the during the rule of Scindia of Gwalior has made the whole scene most fascinating.  Gopal Singh, the Raja of Karoli, made the construction of the fort on high cliff. Sikandar Lodi sent a big army to hold control over this strongly built fort. Later, rulers of the Maratha Empire in their campaign of northern India again won it and gave it back to the King of Karoli. However Khande Rao again snatched it away from him. The English seized it in the year 1804-5. In 1809, the area around this fort was added in the kingdom of Scindia. 

Check out http://www.indianetzone.com/48/tourism_morena_district.htm for more details.