Singalila

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Singalila, 1908

This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Hill range in Darjeeling District, Bengal, lying between 26 38' and 27 42' N. and 88 o' and 88 9' E., and consisting of an immense spur 60 miles long which stretches south from Kinchinjunga to the plains of India and separates Sikkim and Darjeeling District from Nepal. The waters from its west flank flow into the Tambar, and those from the east into the Great Rangit, a feeder of the Tlsta. The highest peaks are SINGALILA (12,130 feet), SANDAKPHU (11,930 feet), PHALUT (11,811 feet), and SABARGAM (11,636 feet).

The National Park

As in 2023

Sumit Bhattacharya, Nov 26, 2023: The Times of India

Singalila’s rich flora and fauna, including rare animals like the red panda and the clouded leopard, have drawn famous naturalists since the 19th century. Charles Darwin’s best friend, the British botanist Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, visited it in 1849. Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, who wrote Seven Years In Tibet, also visited it several times
From: Sumit Bhattacharya, Nov 26, 2023: The Times of India

Chhabi Rai would have died, mauled by a bear in Singalila National Park during the first coronavirus lockdown in March 2020. He lived to tell the tale, thanks to another rare beast that roams the high-altitude India-Nepal border in West Bengal, a vintage Series 1 Land Rover.


“The bear didn’t even give me time to take out my khukhri,” says the 60-yearold shepherd, showing stitches on his scalp. “I fought it for half an hour.”

Chhabi is lucky. He had managed to kick the bear down the slope, dragged himself up to the ridge-line trail that goes from Sandakphu – West Bengal’s highest peak at 3,636m – to Phalut, and collapsed. A Land Rover driver spotted and drove him the 37km to Mane Bhanjang, the entry point to Singalila, from where he was taken to a hospital in Darjeeling, another 25km away.


Legacy Of Tea Gardens


Singalila is the only place in India from where you can clearly see four of the world’s five highest peaks – Everest, Kanchenjunga, Makalu and Lhotse – if the mist, clouds and fog allow. The (British) Indian government had bought the Singalila ridge from the Sikkim Durbar in 1882, four years after it was notified as a reserve forest. It was made a national park in 1992 and opened to tourists.


As for the Land Rovers, dozens of them were brought by British tea traders to the Darjeeling area in the decade after Independence. When they left India, they sold the off roaders to the locals, and the Land Rovers of Mane Bhanjang became a lifeline for this remote region in the Eastern Himalayas. For decades, they were the only vehicles that could take people and goods up to Sandakphu and the villages on the trail. In 2018, the British carmaker made a film about them to celebrate its 70th anniversary.


Altogether 30 Series 1 Land Rovers – built in Britain between 1948 and 1957 – still ferry tourists from Mane Bhanjang to the park. It is the last active fleet of these vehicles in the world. But now, passed down from hand to hand for as little as Rs 25,000 each, the Land Rovers are on their last ‘wheels’. 
“Can’t put coolant, have to pour cold water,” our driver Tenzee says, grinning, as he rests the vehicle after a bone-rattling climb. Most of the fleet has had its original petrol engines swapped out with Mahindra Bolero diesel engines, although Tenzee’s Land Rover retains its old radiator.


Surefooted And Rugged


The trail to Sandakphu runs on the India-Nepal border, with one side of the mountain in India and the other in Nepal. This was the route of the first successful expedition to Kanchenjunga in 1955. When the mountaineers returned, Tenzing Norgay – who had climbed Everest two years earlier – felicitated them at Sandakphu.


The barebones Land Rovers and their drivers ruled the Sandakphu trail while it remained unpaved. “The idea to keep the trail undisturbed and open to only Land Rovers was to control pollution, since they were originally petrol vehicles,” says Chandan Pradhan, president of the Singalila Land Rover Association.


But now the road has been metalled more than halfway. “We were told that the road construction cannot be stopped because it is a matter of national security,” Pradhan adds.


Beginning Of The End


The road is good news for tourists but has hastened the end of the Mane Bhanjang Land Rovers. Tourists now demand a ride in contemporary SUVs like the Bolero. Pradhan says the local transport office has refused to renew the registrations of the Land Rovers, adding, “The road has already killed trekking to Sandakphu. Who wants to hike alongside vehicles belching smoke?”


The Land Rover association has applied for heritage status from the West Bengal government, but Pradhan isn’t pinning his hopes on it. “Heritage status means they will become like the Darjeeling toy train, available for joy rides… Who will pay Rs 1,000 apiece to ride a Land Rover from Darjeeling to Mane Bhanjang?” he wonders. “The owners are selling them off. Buyers from Goa and Bengaluru are paying big money for them. Soon, it will all be over.”