Darjeeling Himalayan Research Articles

Mobility, tropicality and landscape: the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, 1881–1939

In 1881 the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) commenced service between Siliguri, on the Bengal plains, and the hill-station of Darjeeling, 40 miles north and nearly 7000 feet above. Its open, ‘Lilliputian’ carriages climbed narrow, hill-side rails, hoisting passengers from lowland heat into bracing mountain air. While the train is typically considered a mode of transport, it also constitutes a technology of perception and social space. This paper examines how one railway mediated experiences of travel and landscape. It shows how the DHR formed a rolling enclave in and through which Western travelers encountered a colonial frontier, reinforcing passengers' identities and generating touristic modes of observation. It explores how the train's structure and motion neutralised perceived and actual hazards of the Indian environment, while rendering the track-side surroundings a series of sights for aesthetic contemplation. Finally, it examines how the DHR integrated with perceiving bodies and choreographed the passing terrain, thus demonstrating the value of attending to material technology in the phenomenological study of landscape.

Embodying the Mobilities of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

This paper develops a critical understanding of one of the key railway journeys in India, namely, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR). Using the mobilities paradigm, this paper offers a cultural analysis of the ‘journey’ of the DHR: how it is instrumental in making travel experiences and how it is itself constituted through different embodied travel practices and performances. Different modes of travel involve contrasting experiences, performances and affordances. In this context, this paper explores the ‘hybrid geographies’ of the DHR as involving a complex relationality between the traveller and the mode of travel: how it incorporates different aspects of mobilities. What is significant is the relative slowness of the DHR and the ways in which it communicates a different sense of time, which also leads to a blurring between practices of walking and travelling on the train itself. The train itself is also conceptualised as playful, as it engages with the places it passes through. Drawing upon recent literature on landscape and visuality, the DHR is further explored in terms of its movement through and engagement with the landscapes of the Himalayas.

A new species of Nazeris Fauvel, 1873 (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Paederinae) from Uttarakhand, Northern India

Nazeris indicus Cameron, 1943, described from the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region of West Bengal (type locality: “Ghum district: Tiger Hill”) [Cameron, 1943:32], is currently the only species of the paederine genus Nazeris Fauvel, 1873 known from India. During a field trip to India in June 2011, I collected a new species of Nazeris from Uttarakhand province, which is described herein.

Antihepatopathic Plants Used by the Lepcha Tribe of the Sikkim and Darjeeling Himalayan Region of India

ABSTRACT Members of Lepcha tribe are aborigines in the Sikkim and Darjeeling Himalayan Region. Famed as born naturalists and known to be a “vanishing tribe,” the ethnomedicinal traditions of these people are characterized by multiple remedies for a single ailment. The present study revealed the Lepchas use 36 species of plants belonging to 28 families as liver related ailments. Of these plants, 53 percent have not been reported earlier as hepatoprotective agents and may be used in the development of modern antihepatopathic drugs.

Antidiabetic plants used by Sikkim and Darjeeling Himalayan tribes, India

Sikkim and Darjeeling Himalayan region is characterized by a rich floral diversity and an equally rich ethnomedicinal tradition. Herbal medicine is the dominant system of medicine practiced by the local tribes of this region for the treatment of diabetes. During the course of the present studies it was found that 37 species of plants belonging to 28 families are used as antidiabetic agents in the folk medicinal practices in the region and 81% of these plants are hitherto unreported as hypoglycemic agents. This finding may lead to serious research towards developing new and efficient drugs for diabetes.