Morachi Chincholi – the peacock village near Pune
A famous village in the midst of non-descript villages! Morachi Chincholi village – the names means peacocks and tamarind trees. This village is famous for its tamarind trees (which no one is interested in) and hundreds of free-roaming peacocks and peahens (which everyone is interested in). I like watching birds and was very curious when i heard about this village as almost every peacock i have seen before was in a zoo, apart from the few which roam around the BITS Pilani campus.
How to go to Morachi Chincholi village from Pune (Magarpatta City):
The route is pretty straight-forward. Go towards the Nagar Road, turn right on it (i.e. opposite to the direction of the airport and towards ahmednagar). Keep going until you reach Shikrapur. There, you should see large signboards advertising the homestays and eco-tourism in Morachi Chincholi. You have to take a left there and keep going for another 15-16 kms on a not-so-bad road until you see an arch (with peacock statues on the top) on the right. This is the entrance to the village.
The village is not very big i.e. the one road which runs through it is probably a 2-3 kms long. But, the peacocks are everywhere. You have to drive long the road, stop somewhere and then wander on to the fields. This is the best option to find them. Just staying in the car and hoping that one would land in front of you car can happen, maybe in your dreams 🙂 Having said that, we did get one which crossed the road ahead of us!
We ventured into the fields a bit and managed to see quite a few peacocks. But the problem was that they were extremely fleet footed and often went into the tall grasses literally becoming invisible. Once, we were just looking around standing near the edge of the road and suddenly a peacock rushed out of the bushes just a metre ahead of us. He was there all the while and we hadn’t even noticed him. Probably, a sudden movement by us startled him.
Morachi Chincholi is not just about Morachis, but also chincholis! There were lot of tamarind trees around and we picked up a few seeds to take back home.
When i and Parthipan returned from our scouting inside a field, i saw that Akshara had two nice peacock feathers in her hand. It seems that a villager had chatted up Vidhya while we were away. She was the one who told Vidhya that there were hundreds of peacocks in the area and that the best time to see them would be early mornings and late evenings. She had also gifted two feathers to Akshara who looked very happy with her new toy.
There is also a small temple in the village where it seems bhajans happen in the evenings. There are many “resorts” and eco-tourism centres within the village which offer overnight stays (along with guarnteed sightings of the peacocks!). They also arrange bullock cart trips into the village. We just requested one such parked bullock cart for a photo-op and he was kind enough to oblige.
Is Going in December recommended ? Or only in rainy season ?
Hi, could you please tell me the name of the resort you put up in… We are planning to go in December.
replied on email
Hi Abhishek, please could you tell me the name of the resort you put up in… We are planning to go on August 17.
Dear Rajaram,
I would like to contribute some pictures that I have taken at different places around Pune in this blog. Could you please let me know how I can do the same?
We had gone to Morachi Chincholi today on a half day trip from Viman nagar. As advised, we planned to reach there by evening (around 5PM). Saw few peacocks on the way. We paid 100 bucks per head to one of the resorts and spent an hour inside the resort. There, we saw the peacock dance which was truly amazing. Took some nice pictures and saw around the place. After the resort, we just walked up to the table top land just opposite the resort. It was windy and beautiful. Had a fun sunday evening. Thanks Rajaram for the information.
this websites truly awesome.
useful information..thanx,,
Also they have accomodation facility.
We visited Morachi Chincholi 2 weeks back. We enjoyed the day at Jay Malhar Krishi Paryatan Kendra. They charge Rs. 300 per person (breakfast, lunch… etc included). Good to visit in group.