Drive from Kolkata to Tea Estate with Baikuntpur Forest & Sundar Basti in the Darjeeling

[pyal_p]

"Nest morning after breakfast, Mr. Keshav Acharyya , the "Boro BAbu" of the garden accompanied us to teh forest. As it was Monday , and gardens are usually closed on Mondays and not Sunday. Gentleman in a true sense, who has led 35 years of his life in Tea Estate of Darjeeling. By the way he is from Kolkata.

Look at the table it is beautiful

 

[BHOOTER RAJA]

Beautiful

 

[pyal_p]

Beautiful

thanx

 

[pyal_p]

Next day morning , we started for Baikunthpur Forest, it was around 25 kms from our Bunglow. Mr. Keshav Acharjee accompanied us on my request. Monday is usually Off day . He told us one thing , until told we should not mainly wife and son , get out of the car. we agreed

 

[sureshthegeek]

Nice log! Waiting for more.

 

[adsatinder]

Great Suspense !
Great Moves !
Great Views !
Group Pics !

 

[pyal_p]

So we started for BAikuntapur forest and Mr. KEshab Acharaya accompanied us.

"
Baikunthapur is a Terai forest region in the western part of the Dooars in West Bengal, India, south of the Himalayan foothills, between the Mahananda River to the west and Teesta River to the east. The main towns in the area are Siliguri and Jalpaiguri. The forests are partly in the Darjeeling district and partly in the Jalpaiguri district.

Baikunthapur is an important ecological zone, home to many wild elephants, but is threatened by growth of the local population. The least disturbed areas are in the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. Historically, the Baikunthapur forests were the secure base of theRaikat princes in the time when Koch Bihar was an independent kingdom. Lord Krishna is also said to have found refuge in the forest at one time." .. source wikepedia

Trust me it is very dangerous
No roads are there ,very narrow roads for villagers to go inside the forest. No two vehicles can pass. Home to all species of snakes , Leeches etc

It is around 30 Kms from our stay and the road at times were 35 to 45 degree steep with pebbles and small stones.


After we reached the forest,

This is not a reserved forest, and hence no guards nothing is found. You are just on your own. Elephants, Jaguars, and leopards dominate this region, . My boy was quiet

Look at the denseness of the forest.

 

[pyal_p]

There were some places where sun rays were not able to enter

 

[pyal_p]

After driving towards the core of the jungle, Mr Acharyya , tol dm to stop, as he was about to take us towards a brook where wild animals used to drink water. The trees, leaves were still moist due to the heavy shower last night. The ground was soft too. We walked 100 metres inside the forest from the road.
Trust me it was really spooky. We came to the brook , the water was crystal clean, small fishes were swimming... but the flaura and fauna was too dense

We stayed there for a while, saw a wild boar on the other side. It came out to drink water saw us and went back, maybe it was scared. Honestly seeing it we were more scared and thought of going back to the vehicle and head towards Sundar BAsti, a small hamlet.

This place was infested with leeches, big big ones. I never knew when a leech had climbed my shoe and went inside my jeans, never felt a thing. I realised when I reached the Bungalow around 2.30 PM.

After spending a complete 30 mins we drove off to our next destination

 

[adsatinder]

Great Jungle !
Great Greenery !
Great Adventure !
Great Leech as Toll !