Every major suburban area in the Pune metropolitan region has a little hillock of its own where nearby residents lovingly go for a trek, morning walk, or plant trees, visit a temple on the hill or just enjoy its view from the foothills. My previous experiences are about the Chaturshringi hill - Hiking in the Middle of a Bustling Metro and Pashan Hills - Morning Walk to a Hill in the Backyard.
Adjacent to the Pashan hills are the Baner hill and atop it is the Tukai Devi Hilltop Temple. There are various entrances or access points to the hill and the temple and the prominent among those are the 800 staircases from within Baner and they are in good condition. The other access point is from the Pashan-Baner Link Road via the Pashan hill which is a kind of small trekking route as seen in the picture below. Recently they have also put up benches along the way for visitors to rest when they get tired during the trek. Four wheeler parking could be a problem since the lanes in the old Baner town are narrow so the best thing to do is to park them on the main Baner road which is very wide and simply a few hundred meters into Baner to take the staircase.
It goes without saying that the view from the temple is awesome and on my last visit on a cool mid-November morning I could feel the cool breeze flowing past my skin. It is an absolutely calm and quiet place amidst the city buzz and I could hear the ants walking. Many rare and common birds were chirp and a few reptiles were seen running around for no reason.
The Tukai Devi Temple is small and calm since there are not many devotees that throng the place often. Halfway climbing the stairs you can visit the cave temple of Baneshwar which is an ancient temple carved in stone. This can serve as a good pit stop when ascending the Baner hill to the main temple.
The temple area is a place frequented by the fitness freaks and also by tree plantation enthusiasts like me who take extra efforts to keep the surroundings clean. So if you happen to go there next time make sure you leave it better than you saw it. In short, DO NOT litter. I prefer to visit it early morning or late evening to enjoy the changing sky colors and the trek takes me around an hour one way.
The temple top offers a superb view of the Pune skyline and one can see a concrete jungle of buildings on one side of the temple.
The other side of the temple shows another concrete jungle of Pune as seen in this photo captured by me.
The only silver lining to the dark cloud is the Mula river that can be seen flowing in the distant background, an absolutely mesmerizing view.
All-in-all the Tuakai Devi temple located atop the Baner hills is everything that it should be - tranquil, peaceful with ample space around to spend some quality time with family friends, or solo.
Have you been to a hilltop temple or picnic place with beautiful views, recently? IтАЩd be interested in knowing your experiences.
Until thenтАж Happy Guiding 
Accessibility Features
Being a hilltop temple it would not be correct to expect any accessibility features, though the temple at the foot of the hills has comfortable accessible parking and the access path to the temple is well-paved and leveled to ease the entry for a wheelchair.
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