Recently I went to morni hills with my family. It’s a corner place of Panchkula district and sharing its boundary with Himachal Pradesh. It’s sole hill station of Haryana state and just 1.5 hour journey from state capital Chandigarh. Morni has rich heritage and history, some facts from history (courtesy- Sh. Surender Pal Singh)-
Some facts:
- The Morni Hills were originally held by Rajput Thakurs who had divided the territory into 14 small estates. Each of these estates was called a ‘BHOJ’ and included several hamlets or ‘DHANIS’.
- The Morni hills formed a part of the Kotaha pargana with the Rajput kings of Sirmur as the over lords.
- In 1621 Raja Karm Parkash of Sirmur founded Nahan, as the capital. His successor, Mandhata, was called upon in 1654 by a firman of Emperor Shah Jahan to aid the Faujdar of Jammu and Kangra, Iraj Khan to capture Srinagar in Garhwal. Khalil-ullah Khan was then made the commander by Emperor Shah Jahan to invade Srinagar which was captured in 1655 with the help of Raja Subhag Singh of Sirmur (the successor of Mandhatta). Raja Subhag Singh received the ilaqa of Kotaha by a firman on 21st March, 1655 in reward for the service of Sirmur. The Sirmur troops then evicted the zamindar of Kotaha .
- As per Walter Hamilton (1820) the Sayyid Mirs lost control over Morni sometime around 1775, in all likelihood to the Sirmur kings. Yet, the Mirs held their own against the wave of Sikh conquests and retained their control over Kotaha as feudatories of the Ahluwalias.
- In June 1857, at the time of the Mutiny, the then Mir, Akbar Ali Khan, fell under suspicion of having given assistance to a bands of rebels heading for Jamuna along the foothills through Ramgarh-Naraingarh area. Mr. T. D. Forsyth, Deputy Commissioner Umballa fined him rupees 1000 for his lukewarm response to the British call for help in intercepting the band of mutineers. The Mir came under further suspicion on account of a letter written by his son-in-law Abul Hussun from Muzaffarnagar in September 1857. This led to the search of his fort, where a large quantity of gunpowder, sulphur etc was found. Thereafter, the Deputy Commissioner dismantled his forts at Kotaha and Morni under the orders of the Chief Commissioner of Punjab.
On 17 April, we started our local visit by a morning walk to near by area. This place is full of natural beauty and it’s a very quite place. We enjoyed our walk to some nearby hills. People still use conventional method for storing natural water known as “Bavadi”. It was a refreshing experience in the lap of nature.
After taking breakfast, we left for our next destination Tikkar Taal and Adventure park, which is about 8 kms from Morni’s centre point. This place is perfect place for family weekend hangout. Our first stop was Adventure Park. This park has small attractions for children like rope climbing, river bridge and sliding rides.
After spending some time there, we reached to main attraction Tikkar Taal. It is just 200mts from this adventure park. It has two lakes, the larger one is called Bhim Taal and the smaller one is called Draupdi Taal or Chota Tikkar Taal. Haryana tourism department has built tourist complex comprising of Rooms and an open restaurant for visitors. Children had great fun during boating in bigger taal.
After having our meal at Restaurant at Taal tourist complex, we reached to Morni Fort Museum. Forests Department of Haryana has converted the fort into a museum and nature study centre which houses old photographs of the fort, endangered birds and animals, awareness of dangers of plastic. We spent quality time in learning through well-maintained models and visual.
Over all, this small journey to Morni Hills at weekends can refresh you from city hectic life.