Told in the hills
A forest town on an old elephant road
Lataguri sits in the forest belt that the British reserved in the late nineteenth century, when they were clearing the rest of the western Dooars for tea. The reserved blocks around Gorumara were kept for timber, and the old highway and the Dooars railway line both cut through them. That is why the town is squeezed into a narrow corridor with forest on both sides, and why elephants still use the same crossings their ancestors did.
Gorumara was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1949 and a national park in 1992. As it became known for its rhinos and watchtowers, Lataguri grew from a few forest quarters and a weekly market into a tourism town. That growth puts pressure on the forest edge: loud music, bright lights and fireworks carry far into the park at night and disturb animals that cross the highway. Choose a lodge that keeps the evenings quiet, and you will hear more of the forest too.
Pinned to the board
Did you know
Gorumara National Park, whose main gate is at Lataguri, was rated the best protected area in India for 2009 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The Jalpesh temple near Maynaguri, a short drive from Lataguri, was first built in 1524 under Bishwa Singha of the Koch dynasty.
Gajoldoba on the Teesta, an hour from Lataguri, is where the first Dooars tea garden was opened in 1874.
