adventure · Buxa Tiger Reserve and Buxa Fort, Dooars
The walk up to Buxa Fort
The walk starts at the road end at Santalabari, where you register, pay the forest fee and can hire a guide or porter. The path is wide, partly paved with stones, and climbs steadily through mixed forest of tall trees, bamboo and ferns. Butterflies are everywhere in October and November, and birds call from the canopy. Allow about an hour up and 45 minutes down.
At the top, the fort is less a fort than a set of ruins: sections of thick wall, gateways, building foundations and the remains of the camp where detainees were held in the 1930s and later. A memorial remembers them. Walk around slowly and imagine the place as it was, deep in Bhutan border forest, far from Calcutta.
Carry water, a snack and a rain jacket. The path is slippery after rain and can have leeches from April. Guides can tell stories of the camp and the Tibetan monks who lived here from 1959. Continue to Lepchakha if you have energy and time, or stay overnight in a homestay.
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How difficult is the Buxa Fort trek
Easy to moderate. It is a steady climb of about an hour on a wide stone path from Santalabari, gaining a few hundred metres. Most reasonably fit people, including older children, manage it. Go slowly, carry water and wear shoes with grip. Porters are available.
Do I need a permit for Buxa Fort
You need a forest entry ticket, paid at the checkpoint on the way to Santalabari, and photo ID. A local guide is recommended. Rules and fees change, and the reserve closes from 16 June to 15 September. Check current status before you travel.
Who was imprisoned at Buxa Fort
From 1930 to 1937 the British used the fort as a detention camp for Bengal revolutionaries held without trial under the Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Act. It was used again as a special jail in the 1940s and early 1950s. The poet Subhash Mukhopadhyay was among those held there in a later period.
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