Dooars Overview

A journey through the rolling hill slopes, widespread lush green tea gardens separated by meandering silvery mountain streams, high Sal forests, small quiet ethnic villages, vast meadows with a blue outline of the great Himalayan ranges in the horizon, endless sky..... you are in Dooars!
Laying in the Himalayan foothills, Dooars has great natural beauty. The wildlife-rich tropical forests, innumerable hill streams cutting across the green carpet of tea gardens and undulating plains, low hills rising up from the rivers. A drive through the Dooars plains, the gateway of Bhutan and the entire North East of India, can be the experience of a lifetime.

Map Overview

Place To Visit

Chilapata Forest

Chilapata Forest falls are a great treat to watch on the way to Cooch Behar from Jaldapara. This is another dense forest with elephants and leopards. But, be warned, the most dangerous inhabitants of the forest are armed robbers! In fact, less than three vehicles are not allowed into the forest at any given time for security reasons. The prime reason for hazarding such a trip would be to visit the 5th century CE Nal or Mendabari Fort, mentioned in Marco Polo’s travelogue.

Dalgaon View Point

Dalgaon View Point is a 2-hr walk from Gairibas, which in turn is a 4-km drive from Jaldhaka village. The view all along the way is spectacular. The lush green hills of Bhutan are stretched across the horizon; in the plains below flows the Dechu from Bhutan that becomes the Jaldhaka at Bindu, where it enters India. Birds flock to these hills in winter. A picnic basket, a bird book, sunscreen lotion and a warm jacket would give you a perfect day here.

Mongpong

Mongpong, just north of Siliguri, overlooks the Coronation Bridge on the Teesta River. It is usually treated as a chai halt along trips up and down from Sikkim. But if you stand on the forested ridge at sunset and watch the sublime beauty of the sal forests of the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and the Teesta, you’ll realise Mongpong is a destination in its own right.

Samsing Suntalekhola

The fairytale setting of Suntalekhola elevates you to far greater heights than the altimeter’s reading of 2,475 ft. Lovingly girdled by a gurgling brook and surrounded on all sides by towering mountains in varying shades of green, Suntalekhola is connected to the civilised world only by a hanging footbridge that shakes every time you take a step. It doesn’t get further away from it all than this.

Paren Village

Paren village, 5 km away from Jaldhaka, is a tiny hamlet hidden in this corner of the Himalaya, undiscovered even by seasoned Bengali tourists. This is a good place to walk around and soak in nature’s glory. Spend a day in the village roaming around, discovering it through chats with the very friendly villagers

Jaldhaka

The drive to Jaldhaka is enchanting. All around is the Chapramari Forest so deep and green, it radiates a fairytalelike energy. It is impossible to take your eyes off the forest. The beautiful forest road makes its way through a little village called Sipchu, with little huts on stilts, some spice and jackfruit plantations and another tiny little village by a dancing hill river. Little pink, blue, green and yellow cottages dot the roadside and hill slopes. All of them have vibrant flower gardens.

oodlabari tea Estate

The unique microclimate of the Dooars, caused by a mélange of mist and rain, produces some of the world’s most delicate tea. There are about 150 estates in the Dooars. Among them, Oodlabari Tea Estate (17 km away) deserves a special mention as it ranks amongst the few fine green-tea producing gardens.

Dooars Destination