JUNNAR

Junnar (जुन्नर) is a city with thousands of years of history in the Pune district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is a talukaheadquarter. Situated at the base of the Sahyadri mountains, it is around 100 km east of Mumbai and 94 km north of Pune. Also located near this city are Shivneri Fort, birthplace of Chhatrapati Shivaji Raje, the famous Maratha king, Lenyadri (girijatmak) and Ozar (vighnaher) both are from Ashtavinayakas. The land surrounding Junnar is very fertile and the main crops harvested are rice, wheat, and sugarcane. The town also holds a weekly market for fruit and vegetables on Sundays. Junnar is also famous for its Ganesh decorations during the Ganesh festival, being sometimes compared with the decorations in Pune and Mumbai during the festival. Junnar taluka in Maharashtra has the largest density of leopard population within a 500 km² area. It also holds the record for the largest number of leopards trapped within that range ever. Junnar is also surrounded by much greenery and dams, such as Vadaj and Manikdoh, common picnicking locations. Also present are the ancient Naneghat caves.

Junnar has attained prominence as early as 90 B.C when king Vedishri son of the Satavahana king Satakarni, the "Lord of Dakshinapatha, wielder of the unchecked wheel of Sovereignty" made Junnar the capital of his kingdom.

State Transport buses run between Pune and Junnar from Shivajinagar ST stand. from 0630 every hour.

 It has an average elevation of 689 metres (2260 feet).

Schools and colleges

Junnar has excellent schools with top class facilities for studies^[3] as well as extra curricular activities.

Considering the need of the huge population of about 55 thousand, need was felt to start a school for the Hearing and Speech Impaired. In 1985 due to the combined efforts of J.E.S., Rotary Club of Junnar, and Surud Mandal (Pune) an effort was made and the school for the hearing and speech impaired children was started.

Shiv Chhatrapati College (श्रि शिव छञपति महाविधालय) and Jaihind technical college provide facilities for further studies in non-technical and technical areas respectively.

Shankararao Butte Patil Vidyalaya (शंकरराव बुटे पाटिल विधालय) previously known as New School Junnar.Annasaheb Awate vidhyalay, Krushnarao munde Vidhyala,Anjuman urdu highschool This is a well known school, which has students got placed in merit list of state board merit list. And has active alumni named Back2School to guide new students for their career.

[edit]Ganesh Co-operative Milk Dairy

This is a milk collecting center located at village Rajuri. For contributing to large extent to the progress of the village, this dairy was named "Shakarita Gaurav Puraskat" by the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.^[4]

[edit]Cave temples

Surroundings of Junnar are very rich with ancient cave temples. In total there are more than 200 individual rock-cut caves located in four hills around Junnar^[5]. The largest and best known group is 30 - 40 Lenyadri Caves to the north from Junnar. Other groups of ancient temples are Tuljalena, Manmodi and Sivaneri.