India Facts | India Safaris and Tours


	Interesting Facts about India Did you know that over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials during the construction of the Taj Mahal, and that the Himalayas boast the world's highest mountains as well as the youngest? Without a doubt, India and the sub-continent is a fascinating travel destination. Here are just some of the interesting facts about this incredible country.

Kanha - The first scientific study of the tiger was done here by the world famous Dr. George Schaller, wildlife behaviorist, author and conservationist.
Pench - has the highest density of herbivores amongst all the tiger reserves.
Bandhavgarh - has a fort which is believed to be 2000 years old.
Panna - is a good place to see the fish-eating crocodile Gharial.
Khajuraho - Built between AD950 and 1050 by the Chandela dynasty, the temples by the end of the 15th century were abandoned, hidden deep within thick jungle, until their accidental discovery by a British military adventurer in 1838.
Varanasi - The oldest continually inhabited city in the world, dating back to Sumer, an ancient civilization located in southern parts of Mesopotamia.
Udaipur - Part of the James Bond movie 'Octopussy' was shot in Udaipur and at the Lake Palace.
Bhopal - The Begums of Bhopal were noticeably the first women rulers in the sub-continent to have come out of the purdah system and openly ruled the kingdom.
Jaipur - has the largest stone-built observatory in the world.
Jodhpur - Umaid Bhawan Palace was constructed over a 15 year period as a public relief and employment works project, by the then Maharajah, during a long period of drought. The palace was built by 3000 artisans consuming one million square feet of the finest marble.
Jaisalmer - Jaisalmer fort is the world's only living fort with about a quarter of the city's population living in it.
Agra - is an ancient city, called Agrabana in the epic Mahabharata. Ptolemy marked Agra on a third-century map of the world.
Taj Mahal - Over a 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials during the construction.
Agra Fort - Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal, spent the last few years of his life in this fort, imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb.
Fatehpur Sikri - The Buland Darwaza erected in 1602 AD to commemorate Akbar's victory over the Deccan, is the highest and grandest gateway in India and ranks among the biggest in the world.
Bharatpur - While the tiger became extinct in this area in 1962, a tigress took up residence in the national park in the year 2000. Where she came from was a mystery - in the summer of 2005 she passed away. For the period she was in the park she never harmed anybody.
Kerala - The most spectacular of the Thrissur Pooram festival is celebrated in at the temple of Vadakkunathan near Trichur where thirty richly and identically decorated elephants carrying ceremonial umbrellas and fanned by whisks are paraded to the temple.
The Backwaters - The network includes five large lakes linked by 1500 km of canals, both manmade and natural, fed by 38 rivers, and extending virtually the entire length of Kerala state.
Cochin - Kochi was the site of the first European settlement in India, and remained the capital of Portuguese India till 1530.
Periyar Tiger Reserve - is running a very successful Eco-development project involving the local communities who earlier used to exploit the park.
Ayurveda - One of the main causes of disease, according to Ayurveda, is pragyaparadha - which means improper use of intellect. This can be in relation to living, working, eating and the various different functions of the senses.
Goa - Even after India's independence in 1947, Goa remained a Portuguese colony till Dec 1961.
Delhi -It has a bird list of over 450 species making it, after Nairobi in Kenya, probably the second richest city in the world for birds.
Mumbai - alone generates nearly forty percent of India's GNP, its port handles half the country's foreign trade, and its movie industry is the biggest in the world.
Aurangabad - was originally known as Khadke or "Big Rock" and was founded in the early sixteenth century by an ex- Abyssinian slave.
Himalayas - The Himalayan range has the highest and youngest mountains in the world.
Himachal Pradesh - Richard Gere, Goldie Hawn and Steven Seagal are some of the Hollywood personalities who are regular visitors to Dharamshala, home of the Dalai Lama.
Uttaranchal - The single most productive capsule of time in the careers of the famous pop group Beatles was in Rishikesh, when they came there to learn meditation. During the period of their stay, they wrote forty-eight songs.
Sikkim - The Nathu La pass which was part of the ancient silk route between India and Tibet has been reopened after 44 years.
Ladakh - is home to the highly endangered Snow Leopard.
Calcutta - The first currency bill of India was printed by the British from a Calcutta mint in 1757.
Darjeeling - yields only three percent of India's total tea produced - but the delicate black tea produced here is considered to be one of the finest in the world.
North East - is home to more than 250 tribes, speaking more than 190 languages and dialects.
Assam - When the then Viceroy of India's wife Lady Curzon visited an area near Kaziranga on elephant back to see the fauna, and learned that Rhinos were being hunted as game, she persuaded her husband to have their hunting banned in Assam.
Arunachal Pradesh - Out of about a thousand species of orchids in India, over 600 are to be found in Arunachal alone.
Gujarat - In Gujarat, the festival of Uttarayan is when people of all ages fly kites from dawn to dusk. The International Kite Festival is held at Ahmedabad , to coincide with this festival.
Gir - besides having the most African of animals, in its Indian avatar the Asiatic lion, Gir also has a community of people who are descendants of African slaves, called the Sidis.
Ahmedabad - has one of the world's finest textile museums - the Calico Museum of Textiles.
Rann of Kutch - is home to the last of three species of Asiatic Wild Ass, the only ones in Asia.
Chennai & Tamil Nadu - The world's oldest dam was built across the Kaveri river in Tamil Nadu by King Karikala Chola.
Mahabalipuram - The Shore Temple is the earliest known example of a stone-built temple in South India.
Kanchipuram - The chief deity of the Varadaraja Temple during the Garuda festival is adorned with a valuable gold necklace said to have been presented by Major General Robert Clive, a key figure in the establishment of British India.
Pondicherry - While the original name was Puducherry, the French spelt it as Poudichery. At some time, the ‘u' was mistaken for a ‘n' and the misspelling stuck.
Karnataka - On a hill 470 feet above the plains stands the biggest freestanding monolithic statue in the world.. It is fifty-seven feet high, twenty- six feet across the shoulders, cut from one solid rock around the year 980 A.D.
Bangalore - The Bull temple has a giant bull 4.5 metres tall and 6 metres long, carved out of a single boulder.
Mysore - In the 18^th century, Haider Ali, Prince of Mysore, developed war rockets using metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder.
Badami - The rocks from which the temples of Badami have been hewn are part of the oldest land formation on earth, the Gondwana Plate.
Hampi - The Sasivekalu Ganesha Temple has a Ganesha statue about 2.4 meter tall fashioned out of a single boulder.
Ooty - The toy train to Ooty often travels only at 5 - 10 kmph and has brakesmen at the rear of every carriage who will apply and release hand powered brakes individually for that carriage. It scales an elevation of 1069 ft to 7228 ft.
Coonoor - formed the backdrop for David Lean's movie A Passage to India (1984) based on E. M. Foster's novel.
Bandipur National Park - is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere which is India's first biosphere reserve.
Nagarhole National Park - It was here in the 19^th century that a Britisher by the name of G.P.Sanderson developed the stockade method of capturing wild elephants.
Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary - was the first sanctuary in South India.
Hyderabad - From about 1900 to the mid 1960's the Nizam of Hyderabad was reported by many as being the richest man in the world. In the 1930's the Nizam was said to have 100 million (GBP) worth of gold and silver and a further 400 million (GBP) worth of jewels.
Kashmir - During colonial times, the laws of Jammu & Kashmir State did not allow for acqusition of immovable property by non-state subjects. To overcome this hurdle, house boats [which move] were devised to allow Europeans to acquire residential premiseses without breaking the law. The Kashmiris have refurbished the British-inspired houseboats as private hotels, which are now tourist attractions.
Srinagar - The Jama Masjid Mosque built in 1398 is spacious enough for 30,000 people.
Gulmarg - has the highest green golf course in the world.
Islands - The lone active volcano of the subcontinent is found on the Barren island of the Andamans
Andaman & Nicobar Islands - The first Western visitor was Marco Polo, who called it 'the land of the head - hunters'
Lakshadweep - The Lakshadweep Islands are a conglomeration of atolls - ring-shaped coral reef formations - that are the richest coral reefs found in India.
Nepal - Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park is the highest national park in the world, with the entire park located above 3,000 m ( 9,700 ft). This park includes three peaks higher than 8,000 m, including Mt Everest.
Kathmandu - houses the world's only living goddess Kumari Devi.
Pokhara - has one of the world's 14 " eight-thousanders " mountain peaks - Annapurna I which is the world's tenth-highest standing at 8,091 metres ( 26,538 ft ).
Chitwan - is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Bardia - was the home of the world's largest Asian elephant Raja Gaj, who had an estimated shoulder height of 11' 3" to 11' 6". .
Bhutan - Television and Internet were introduced in Bhutan only in 1999..
Paro - Scenes for the movie " The little Buddha " were filmed at the Paro Dzong.
Thimpu - It is hard to get lost in Thimphu as it has only one main street.
Punakha - The Punakha Dzong was fully restored after having been damaged by four catastrophic fires and an earthquake.
Sri Lanka - Sri Jayawardenepura is the capital of Sri Lanka, and not Colombo as is commonly thought of.
Colombo - The original Sinhalese name, Kalantotta, was corrupted to Kolambu by Arab traders and was changed to Colombo by the Portuguese
Kandy - Kandy gets its name from the word Kanda, which means ‘ mountain ‘ as the city lies at an altitude of 488.6 m ( 1629 ft ) above sea level, surrounded by mountains.
Yala - While the park was badly hit by the December 2004 tsunami, there were no animal casualities - causing speculations that they might have moved to higher ground after sensing the impeding tragedy.
Galle - The Dutch Reformed Church contains records of marriages since 1748 and baptism from 1678.
Wilpattu - Two of the main topographical features of this park are its villus ( lakes ) and the copper-red, loamy, fine sand.