Sikiajhora in Buxa Tiger Reserve

Recently I visited Buxa. The tiger reserve is located in the easternmost part of Bengal nearing the Assam boarder. I normally prefer to take my Enfield for these trips, but given the present road condition, I chose the morning train. The Siliguri - Dhubri intercity express now starts from Siliguri Junction at 06.05 hours, which is a little early for me, but still a great option if you are traveling to Dooars from Siliguri for a day trip. The train runs mostly in time and reaches Alipurduar Junction by 09.30. It runs through the Dooars route that passes through the forests and offers great view of the jungle on the way.

As I traveled through the forests, I remembered the talk about starting a tourist train in this route. The long overdue tourist train still remains a dream. A few months back the West Bengal Tourism and the Railway Ministry had decided to start the train, the dates were finalised, logistics were put in place, then.... as in many other cases in our country and our state, the project was put on hold.

View of Mahananda River from the train while crossing Gulma station

The train runs through a single track route. Every time there is a crossing, one of the trains are held at a station while the other train is passed. Still we did fairly well to reach Kalchini at 9. I had to meet a friend at Rajabhatkhawa, but the train wont stop there, so I planned to take a van from Alipurduar and come back to Bhatkhawa. Fortunately for me, the train had to stop at Bhatkhawa station to give pass to a coming train, giving me enough time to alight and walk to reach my friend.

My work was over in half an hour and the return train was at 16.45. I asked my friend to show me around the important tourist sites. Jayanti and Buxa fort has been a oft visited place for me, so we decided to ride to Sikiajhora.

As we reached the highway bypassing Alipurduar, the road condition turned horrible, the 6 kms drive till the Sikiajhora turn at Panialguri took about 30 minutes.

Road between Alipurduar and Sikiajhora crossing

At Panialguri we took a left turn, don't mistake this turn for the Durgabari more which is a more important crossing half a kilometer further ahead towards Assam. The Sikiajhora Picnic spot is about 2 kms from this turn through village road.

Sikiajhora is a small stream that flows within the Buxa Tiger reserve. A small dam and embankment was constructed by forest department here a few years back. There was also boating trip available inside the forest. The small stream turned a furious river during the rainy season and the embankments were breached. today boating has stopped and the place gives a deserted look.

The Small dam and embankment

If you are here to be close to nature, you would still love spending a couple of hours besides the forest on the watchtower.

View of Buxa forest including Sikiajhora

Its not being very long when a group of friends took the boat ride from Sikiajhora and went about 4 kms inside the forest, they had come across a large python on the riverbank.

Today that option is no longer available. The building and the gates constructed for boating is abandoned. Although it was the first week of December, already a high season for tourists in Dooars, I could not find any tourists there.

Entrance to the Boating area covered with bushes

It shouldnt take much to revive the beautiful spot, the embankments, although breached, would not take much of an effort to rebuild. The nature and the birds are still there, so is the watchtower and the boats, probably a little effort from the forest department could bring back Sikiajhora back to its past glory.

Storks on top of a Tree

It took half an hours drive to return to Alipurduar where I took a train at 4.45 and reached Siliguri at 7.30 PM.
Visit the travel site for more information on Buxa Tiger reserve and its surrounding area.

Tourist Accommodation at Rajabhatkhawa in Buxa Tiger Reserve.

Trip To Dzuluk - March 25-26

They were a group of 4/5 people walking down to their village. From the zig zag hilly roads, they saw a small bear like creature down about fifty meters away in an open pasture between the forests. Nearby a group of workers were breaking boulders for road construction. They immediately joined in and as the group of 20/25 people assembled, some of them shouted and threw stones at the animal down below. The creature stood up, a seven feet beast, hairy and humanlike. The observers realized it’s not a Himalayan bear. Scared as they were, they ran till they reach Dzuluk few kilometers down.

That night the army camp at Dzuluk had its water supply cut. Next morning a group of soldiers accompanied by some local laborers tried to locate the cause for water disruption. As they approached the place where the animal was sighted, they found the 3 inch diameter iron water pipe bent and broken and a large section of it thrown 30 ft high.

There is an abundance of similar stories of Yeti and others around here. Beasts that you would laugh at in your city residence came alive when the stories were told on a dark evening lit by a candle at 11 thousand feet.

I was accompanying a group of friends who were filming the silk route connecting Kalimpong in West Bengal with Tibet. The trade was going on till the 50’s, till the time the Chinese came to occupy Tibet. Remnants of the old Silk route still exist. Although in many places it’s been taken over by the metal road created by the army.

Dzuluk in east Sikkim is just a few kilometers from the Tibet boarder. It is a small stretch of land in between dense forests. The area is scarcely populated and the forest is almost totally virgin. The steep ascent of the hills ensures that even the locals can not venture into much of the forest area. The Bhutan forests are few hours walk. Dense forests of Neora valley National park are not much further either.

You need a special permit to visit this region. The permits are easily available now, foreigners are still not allowed to visit the area.

Apart from the obvious attraction of the silk route, the place offers excellent view of Mt. Kanchenjunga and surrounding peaks. The surrounding forests have large variety of flora and fauna. During April the entire hill is covered with Gurus (Rhododendron) and Chap (Magnolia). The beautiful Monal pheasant can be seen almost in every other corner of the road. I also saw a deer during my stay of less than 24 hours. Tigers, Bears, Thar are not very few either. Locals were also mentioning existence of the illusive kasturi mriga, Bharal and a variety of other animals.

I plan to explore the place further in April.

for more information on dzuluk visit the travel site of naturebeyond.