A green Hill Station – 30 to 40 kms away from Bombay as the crow flies. At an elevation of around 800 metres (2650 feet), is a walker’s paradise. It is undulating, covered with a canopy of tall trees, many of them more that 100 years old. Very many are Anjan and Jamun. Before 1850 there was no Matheran, it would have looked just like how Prabal looks today. Prabal is to the west of Matheran and can be seen from so many points which face the west. All the points stretching from One Tree Hill to Panorama point. The English were responsible for creating this paradise. We in the last 20-30 years have been ruining it by not knowing how to handle the tourist over-load. The charm of walking on mud roads with no vehicular traffic will soon be a thing of the past. The main roads have been paver blocked and is now jarring to walk on. E-rickshaws are waiting to start plying.
Temperature at any point of day or night, 4 to 6 degrees lower than Bombay. And so it is literally getting choked by tourists. Plastic bottles and wrappers everywhere. Sale of water in plastic bottles has to somehow stop.
Flora of Matheran
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