Chalsa is a small town situated just on the foot of the Himalayas in the Duars in Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal.

Chalsa is a small town situated just on the foot of the Himalayas in the Duars in Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal. This small town is surrounded by hills, tea gardens, rivers and forests. One part of the town is surrounded by Gorumara National Park and other part with Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary. Nearby forests are residence of a good collection of elephants and rhinos. It is situated on the way towards Birpara or Alipurduar from Siliguri via Malbazar. It takes around 1.5 hours from Siliguri both on road and railways. It is 60 km from Bagdogra airport.

Gorumara national park

Gorumara National Park (Bengali: গোরুমারা জাতীয় উদ্যান; Pron: ˌgɔ:rʊˈmɑ:rə; Gorumara Jatio Uddan) is a National Park in northern West Bengal, India. Located in the Dooars region of the Himalayan foothills, it is a medium-sized park with grasslands and forests. It is primarily known for its population of Indian rhinoceros. The park has been declared as the best among the protected areas in India by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the year 2009.[1]

Gorumara National Park

গোরুমারা জাতীয় উদ্যান

IUCN category II (national park)

Gorumara Gateway Arnab Dutta.JPG

Entrance to Gorumara National Park

Map showing the location of Gorumara National Park গোরুমারা জাতীয় উদ্যান Map showing the location of Gorumara National Park গোরুমারা জাতীয় উদ্যান

Location in West Bengal, India

Location Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, India

Nearest city Malbazar, Mainaguri, Jalpaiguri

Coordinates 26.7°N 88.8°E

Established 1949 (WLS), 1994 (NP)

Governing body Government of India, Government of West Bengal

Human history Edit

There is no history of human habitation in the park. The park forest bungalow dates back to the British Raj era, and contains a well-maintained log book from its inception, which makes for interesting reading. However Gorumara is encircled by many ethnic villages. More than 10,000 resident forest villagers derive their income from sources including employment in forest department activities, ecotourism, etc. Some of the villages are Sarswati, Budhuram, Bichabhanga, Chatua, Kailipur and Murti Forest Village.

Natural history Edit

A road inside the park

Biomes Edit

The park falls in the Indomalaya ecozone. Inside the park, the primary biomes corresponding to the ecozone are:

Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome

Lower Gangetic plains moist deciduous forests of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome

Both of these are typical of the Bhutan - Nepal - India Terai submontane region.

Flora Edit

Typical flora include:

Sal forests with common teak, rain tree (Shirish or Albizia saman lebbeck), and Bombax (also known as silk cotton tree or Shimul)

Bamboo groves, terai grassland vegetation and tropical riverine reeds

Gorumara is home to numerous tropical orchids.

Gorumara National Park Panorama

Fauna Edit

The park has recorded fifty species of mammals, 194 species of birds, 22 species of reptiles, 7 species of turtles, 27 species of fish, and other macro and micro fauna.

Mammals: The park is rich in large herbivores including Indian rhinoceros, gaur, Asian elephant, sloth bear, chital, and sambar deer. Small herbivores include barking deer, hog deer and wild boar. There is a comparative lack of large carnivores, with the only big cat being the leopard. The park is not home to any resident population of Bengal tigers, Indian wild dogs, or Indian wolves. Tigers are, however, occasionally spotted here. It does have numerous small carnivores including various civets, mongooses and small cats. The park has a large resident population of wild boar, but the critically endangered pygmy hog has been reported from the park. It also has numerous rodents, including giant squirrels. The rare hispid hare has also been reported from the park.

Birds: Birds at the Gorumara National Park include submontane forest birds like the scarlet minivet, sunbird, Asian paradise flycatchers, spangled drongo, and Indian hornbill. Numerous woodpeckers and pheasants inhabit the park. Peafowls are very common. The park is on the flyway of migratory birds including the rare brahminy duck.

Reptiles and amphibians: The park is home to a large number of snakes, venomous and non-venomous, including the Indian python, one of the largest snakes in the world, and the king cobra - the world's largest venomous snake.

Kanchenjunga view

Beautiful Bengal 

 Kanchenjunga view

About Dooars

Description

The Dooars or Duars are the floodplains and foothills of the eastern Himalayas in North-East Indiaaround Bhutan. Duar means door in Nepali, Bhojpuri, Magahi and Bengali languages, and the region forms the gateway to Bhutan from India. There were 18 passages or gateways through which the Bhutanese people can communicate with the people living in the plains. This region is divided by theSankosh river into the Eastern and the Western Dooars, consisting of an area of 8,800 km² (3,400 sq mi). The Western Dooars is known as the Bengal Dooars and the Eastern Dooars the Assam Dooars. Dooars is synonymous with the term Terai used in Nepal and northern India.

History

The history of the Dooars is very old. According to current historical research carried out by Dr. Sailen Debnath, an eminent scholar of the region, the Dooars was the seat of the medieval Kamata kingdom. Kamatapur emerged as a sovereign state from the middle of the seventh century. Most probably, Nalrajar Garh in Chilapata Forest was the earliest capital of Kamatapur, and subsequently through various ups and downs the capital was shifted to Mainaguri and then to Prithu Rajar Garh before its final shifting to Gosanimari, an ancient port-town since the seventh century. After the kingdom of Kamatapur as was devastated by Alauddin Husain Shah of Gaur in 1494, there emerged the Koch kingdom again in the Dooars under the leadership of Vishwa Singha. Hingulavas near Mahakalguri in the Dooars was the earliest capital of the Koch kingdom. It was long after that the Koch capital was shifted to Atharakota and then ultimately to present Cooch Behar town.

Geography and climate

Political geography

The Dooars region politically constitutes the plains of Darjeeling District, the whole of Jalpaiguri District and the upper region of Cooch Behar District in West Bengal and the districts of Dhubri,Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Goalpara and Bongaigaon in the state of Assam.

Physical geography

The altitude of Dooars area ranges from 90 to 1,750 m. Innumerable streams and rivers flow through these fertile plains from the mountains of Bhutan. In Assam, the major rivers are the Brahmaputraand Manas. In northern West Bengal, the major river is the Teesta besides many others like the Jaldhaka, Murti, Torsha, Sankosh, Dyna, Karatoya, Raidak, and Kaljani rivers, among others.

Climate

The average rainfall of the area is about 3,500 mm. Monsoon generally starts from the middle of May and continues till the end of September. Winters are cold with foggy mornings and nights. Summer is mild and constitutes a very short period of the year.

People

The native people of this region generally have Mongoloid features. They are composed of numerous tribes, including the Bodo in Assam, and the Rabha, the Mech, the Toto, the Koch, theTamang/Murmi, the Limbu, the Lepcha and the Rajbongshi in Bengal.

Apart from the tribal population, a large Bengali population (mostly displaced from the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) by the Partition of Bengal) also populate the Dooars.

The Dooars are famous for the tea gardens which were planted by the British. For working in the gardens, they imported labour from Nepal and the Chota Nagpur and Santhal Parganas. The Oraons,Mundas, Kharia, Mahali, Lohara and Chik Baraik are the tribals from these areas. Before the settlement of other communities, these people converted the forests into villages and busties (agriculture village). The remnants of these tribal people form a majority of the population in Western Dooars.

Cities and towns

The Dooars is a large region and is dotted with many towns and cities. The largest city in the whole region stretching from the Darjeeling foothills to the Arunachal Pradesh foothills is Siliguri. Thisnorthern Bengal city is well connected with the rest of country by road, air and railway and is the business hub of the region.

The other major cities are Tezpur, Bongaigaon, Goalpara, Barpeta and Dhubri in Assam. Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Malbazar, and Birpara are the major cities of the Dooars in West Bengal. Also, the commercial capital of Bhutan, Phuentsholing, near Jaigaon, can be considered a part of this region.

Politics

Historically, the region has suffered from ethnic strife. The Bodoland agitation in Assam for a separate state for the Bodo people and the Kamtapur or Greater Cooch Behar movement for a Kamtapur state in northern Bengal for the Rajbongshis are the two most vociferous ones.

Economy

A tea garden in Dooars with the background of the Himalayas.

The economy of Dooars is based on three "T"s – Tea, Tourism and Timber. The main industry of the Dooars region is the tea industry. Thousands of people are engaged in the tea estates and factories. Several people are also engaged in the cultivation of bettlenuts which also contributes to the economy. Cultivation of other crops is done mainly for local consumption.

The area is dotted by several national parks and wildlife sanctuaries which attract a lot of tourists from all over India and abroad, making it an important contributor to the economy and also employer of a number of people.

Blue Whistling Thrush at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.

The timber industry, both legally and illegally, flourishes in this region. A number of saw mills, plywood industries and other allied business also act as an important contributor to the economy.

The Dooars act as doorways to Bhutan; thus, the export-import industry also flourishes in the area. The towns of Jaigaon, Siliguri and Phuentsholing are important hubs of the export-import industry.

As the region is near the international borders of Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, the Border Security Force (BSF), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indian army and Indian Air Force maintain a large presence in the area. This leads to a large population of semi-permanent residents who bring money into the local economy.

Forests and animals

Paris Peacock at Samsing in Darjeeling districtof West Bengal, India.

The beauty of the region lies not only in its tea gardens but also in the dense jungles that make up the countryside. Many wildlife sanctuaries and national park like Manas National Park in Assam, Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary, Buxa National Park, Gorumara National Park, Chapramari Wildlife Reserve and theMahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in West Bengal are located in this region.

A number of rare endangered species of animals like tiger, rhinoceros and elephant make their habitat in the forests of the Dooars. Other animals includes different types of deer, bison, birds and reptiles.

Transport

The main mode of transport in the area is roadways. Most of the places are well connected by roads. NH31 is the main highway of the area. Regular bus services provided by North Bengal State Transport Corporation and Assam State Transport Corporation and other private parties run between all the important places of the area. Shared jeeps and maxi-taxies are quite popular in the area.

There are some important railway stations in the area such as New Jalpaiguri, New Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, New Bongaigaon, etc. An important rail route between Alipurduar Junction and New Jalpaiguri via Malbazar covers almost the entire Dooars. This railway line is under much controversy because the speeding trains have killed many wild elephants.^[2]

Two important airports of the area are Bagdogra Airport near Siliguri and Guwahati Airport. Another airport is proposed to start in Cooch Behar shortly.