Wikipedia Treks Sammed Sikhar/Report

Wikipedia Treks Sammed Sikhar event was completed successfully on 13th September, 2014. The full report of the event is provided below.

Cost

• Whether asked for sponsorship from Wikimedia India Chapter - Not done, event was self funded.
• Total cost (Travel + Accomodation + Food) - approx. 400 /- only

Participants

Only one Wikipedian (User:Bodhisattwa) attended the event. In spite of the spread of news of the event through social media, no other Wikipedians went for the trek. Nine trekkers from Mountain Lovers' Association, Asansol independently organized their trek to Sammed Sikhar and User:Bodhisattwa accompanied them.

Travel

All 10 trekkers assembled at Asansol Railway Station at around 1 am on 13th September, 2014 and boarded on Sealdah Ajmer Superfast Express at 2 am, which took nearly 2 hours to reach Parasnath Railway Station. A vehicle was hired to reach Madhuban, which was 26 kilometres away from the station.

Weather

Weather was humid and cloudy. Temperature was around 30 degree centigrade.

Trek

Trek started at around 8 am. After a steep climb of around 2 kilometers, a Jain temple complex was noted which were photographed. After another 2 kilometres, Gandharvanala was crossed. The place was polluted by pilgrims who had thrown garbage indiscriminately to the water. After another one and a half kilometres, the trail was divided in two parts. The left sided trail, which led directly to the tonk of Ganadhara Gautam Swami, was approached. After few minutes from the diversion, Sitanala water stream was noted, photographed and water was collected. After a 2 hour steep climb, the first of Ganadhara Gautam Swami was noted. Here the team of Mountain Lovers' Association, Asansol went for Jal Mandir and then to Parshwanath Tonk to the right side. User:Bodhisattwa went for a solo trek to photograph all the tonks which were situated to the left side after a decision was made to meet them at Parshwanath Tonk after one and half hour. User:Bodhisattwa trekked around 9 kilometers alone and photographed all the tonks except the tonks of Adinath, Ananthnath, Shitalnath and Sambhabnath, which were missed due to the very short time limit and a hasty trek. After one and half hour, whole team met at Parshwanath Tonk, took their lunch and prepared for a return journey to Madhuban. At around 3 pm the return trek started and after 2 hours, the team came down to Madhuban.

Success

• First ever Wikipedia Treks Mountains event was organised.
• Photographs of different tonks, temples, landscapes of the region has been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
• Indic language articles (Bengali) about Sammed Sikhar has been created.

Failure

• Only one Wikipedian went for the trek.
• Four tonks of Adinath, Ananthnath, Shitalnath and Sambhabnath were not explored and not photographed due to very short time limit.
• The town of Madhuban was not photographed, because the whole team decided to return on next day morning.

Future Scope

• A Wikipedia Takes Madhuban event can be organised in future to photograph the innumerable Jain temples, statues of deities and the Jain History Museum which are situated there at Madhuban.