Unchalli Falls, also known as Lushington Falls, is a waterfall created by a 116-metre (381 ft) drop in the Aghanashini river. The falls are located near iSiddapura, Uttara Kannada District of KarnatakaIndia. The falls are named for J. D. Lushington, a District Collector for the British Government, who discovered the falls in 1845.
Sirsi town is situated in Western Ghats, surrounded by evergreen forest and gifted with large number of waterfalls. Aghanashini River emanates at "Donihalla" near Sirsi and flows creating many waterfalls along its path to merge in Arabian Sea.
Many trekkers are familiar with Sirsi as it has been attracting them as well as nature lovers. Its location is an ideal point since it is in the middle of Western Ghats. There are several interesting points, as I have seen in my many trips. The mountain peaks offer spectacular views of the Sahyadri mountain range providing number of trekking routes around this section, some of them are familiar to localites only. There are innumerable numbers of herbs available here for medicinal purposes.
Aghanashini River after originating from Western Ghats flows through the town of Kumta to merge in the Arabian Sea in the north. Another river flowing from the Yana Caves meets this river at Uppinapattana. The fort Tadri, an ancient port, and Unchalli Falls are on Aghanashini, which is in the thickets of the Sahyadri hills create wonderful waterfalls called Unchalli falls. It has another name as Lushington falls. J D Lushington was the District Collector here and discovered the falls in 1845 as such it is named after him. Unchalli waterfall falls from the height of 116 metres (381 ft) drop. It is located near Siddapur.
Siddapur is at 35km from Heggarne, a hamlet in Uttara Kannada district. From here we reached the falls located at 5km on trek from Heggarne amidst thick forest. Here the river forms the waterfalls to dive into steep valley providing a spectacular, picturesque cascade with roaring sound. This is also known as Keppajoga because of the deafening sound produced by it while jumping hurriedly into the deep pit. (Keppa means deafening and joga refers to Jogfalls, which is also known for such thunderous sound).
The special feature of this region is that even during lean rainy season there will be plenty of rain to maintaining its natural beauty of pouring water from the heights to keep us always happy. The world famous Jogfalls, inspite of its popularity in attracting tourist from all the corners of the globe cannot maintain its beauty uniformly during other seasons. Whenever there is no rain Jogfalls will get automatically dried up; whereas Unchalli falls has perennial source of supply of water as gift of nature. Unchalli falls are step waterfalls but Jogfalls are plunge waterfalls.

The locals say that we must see this falls during the monsoon when the waterfalls reach the peak of their grandeur as it is surrounded by natural vegetation all around preserving its loveliness. It gives an exquisite and delightful sight to our eyes. The eye-catching scene of the water dropping down along the Rocky Mountains is wonderful enough to relieve us from all our physical and mental strain of trekking 5km from the Heggarne village along the dense forests having exciting experience. The vertical mountain slopes and pathway, profound chilly breeze plus the astonishing plants, flowers and vegetation keep the viewers dumb while trekking until the point of roaring Unchalli Falls storming down the earth.
Unchalli falls can be visited at any time of the year as it offers an excellent view of the surrounding flora.
It is at 30km from Sirsi town. It is convenient to reach Unchalli on SH142. After crossing 20km on Sirsi-Kumta road you see yellow board pointing towards Unchalli on left (Unchalli falls road). KSRTC buses go to Heggarne, from where it is few kilometers walk.
You can have food and accommodation at Sirsi or Yellapur and carry water and food pockets.

Post a Comment

Please do not enter any spam link in the comment section

Previous Post Next Post