Jungle Mahal - The forested and tribal inhabited area of the western districts of West Bengal. Spread across the districts of Jhargram, West Medinipur , Bankura & Purulia, the place is absolutely rich in tribal history, their valor, their culture and above all with its luxuriant forests and beautiful red soil looks extremely beautiful.
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| The Rugged Beauty of Jungle Mahal - At Gangani |
Sadly, due to prolonged political disturbance, and remoteness, the people here have been deprived of the government facilities, which once helped naxalites to penetrate the region. However for last 5-6 years, the situation has improved immensely. Development activities have been done, which has helped the region once again to regain normalcy.
The Plan
After staying almost 6 months within home, due to the COVID 19 situation, on a mid July weekend we ultimately decided to have a road trip towards the jungle mahal region. The main reason to chose jungle mahal road trip, is during monsoon, the region becomes absolutely breathtaking with its thick forests and lovely little rivulets. We planned for a round-trip encircling the jungle mahal region of the state. Our plan was to start very early from Kolkata, drive straight towards Belpahari, taking a stop at Chilkigarh enoute, Then through the heart of jungle mahal drive to Gangani , popularly known as Grand Canyon of West Bengal and then come back to Kolkata, via Midnapur and Kolaghat.
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| The Route |
Overall as per Google map it's a 500 km round-trip with a driving time of 12 hours. With sight scene and refreshment breaks which should go up to 15 to 16 hours.
We started at 5.30 a.m. Luckily the morning was beautiful & sunny , almost like autumn. In no time we crossed the Dhulagarh toll plaza and was purring along the beautiful NH 16.
We Crossed Kolaghat by 7.30 am and Kharagpur by 9 am.
After crossing Kharagpur, the landscape changes dramatically, you could realize you have entered the chotanagpur region with red soil and sal forests all around. Specially the stretch of NH49 at lodhasuli forest, with thick sal forest on both sides of the road looked absolutely beautiful.
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| Beautiful NH49 at Lodhashuli |
From a place called Chichra we left the national highway and took a right turn into the road that goes towards Belpahari. After driving for 16 more kilometres we reached our first stop of the trip - The Chilkigarh Raj Palace.
It was almost 11 am by then.
Chilkigarh Palace and Kanakdurga Temple
Chilkigarh Raj Palace is a beautiful structure which has seen the good and bad days.
The compound also has some beautiful old temples intricately carved. The temples are still functional and the royal family pays their homage to the deity regularly.
A part of chotanagpur plateau, Chilkigarh was once a flourishing estate in its heydays.
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| Chilkigarh Palace Compund and Temples |
We enjoyed some moments in the Rajbari compound, feeling the legacy of the place. The dilapidated structure still evokes the charm of its glorious past. The Palace has a colonial influence in its architecture and under the monsoon skies looked surreal.
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| Chilkigarh Palace |
From Chilkigarh Raj Palace we visited the famous Kanakdurga Temple which is just a kilometre away. Setup by the royal family, the kanakdurga temple has a long history. The old temple is in a dilapidated state, and a relatively new structure has been created few decades ago.
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| KanakDurga Temple |
The entire Jhargram & Chilkigarh region is inhabited by various tribes, and they highly revere devi Kanakdurga. The temple is situated by the banks of dulung river, a small little rivulet and enjoys a regular footfall of the devotees.
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| Dulung River near the Kanakdurga Temple |
We also paid our homage to the deity. When we visited , we were the only visitor, and the main pujari performed the rituals with a lot of energy and vibes.
Journey Towards Belpahari
From Chilkigarh we drove straight towards Belpahari. We drove via Gidhni and Parihati. As usual the roads were silky smooth. We were driving mostly through Sal forests , occasionally flanked by small little forest villages. After crossing Parihati met with this lovely little stream. Saw local women looking for small catches in the shallow water of the stream.
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| Local women looking for the catch of the day |
As we drove from Chilkigarh to Belpahari, the forest cover on both sides of the road, increased, and the occasional villages, also became a rarity. We were really surprised to see beautiful roads even in so much interior region of the state. The beautiful tarmac, flanked with lofty sal forests looked amazing.
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| Road Condition at Belpahari |
Chilkigarh to Belpahari took less than an hour. From Belpahari market we took a detour towards Ghagra waterfalls, through an un-metaled forest road.
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Villages of Jungle Mahal - Enroute Ghagra Falls |
The road was really thrilling, with no one to be seen enroute. We were a bit confused whether we were moving in the right direction, but kept our faith on Google maps.
After driving almost for 2 kilometres inside the forest we reached our destination.
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| Ghagra Rapids |
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| A glimpse of Tarafeni river few kilometers before Ghagra Waterfalls |
A dip in the water would have been a perfect thing to do, but unfortunately we did not have any spare clothes, so had to abandon that idea.
Towards Gangani - Through the heart of Jungle Mahal
Our next destination was The Grand Canyon of West Bengal - Gangani.
We set a goal of reaching their by 4 pm, we had to cover almost 85 km road in 2.5 hours to reach Gangani. So from Belpahari to Gangani, we drove almost non stop. This time we were driving through the heart of jungle mahal. The road condition was moderately good. We had to cross the bridge over river Kangsabati at Raipur.
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| Driving through the Elephant Corridor |
There are some stretches in the route which is deeply forested and is known as frequent elephant corridor. The deep foliage looks absolutely thrilling. We really felt tempted to take frequent stops, to enjoy the forested beauty and take snaps of the nature, however due to shortage of time we tried to avoid it as much as we could.
We reached Gangani before 4 p.m., and it was love at first sight. By far this is the most impressive stop of this entire road trip.
Gangani - The Beautiful Canyon of River Shailabati
Gangani is famous for the 70 feet deep natural canyon formed due to the erosion of the Shilabati River.
This is indeed Bengal's own version of the Grand Canyon. An absolute surreal place by the banks of River Shilabati.
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| River Shilabati flowing through the Canyon |
From the lookout point we could see River Shilabati flowing languidly through the rugged landscape. The small hillocks through which the river has flowed has been eroded for ages creating some stunning visuals.
The texture , the color on those rocks are absolutely intriguing. The red rocks against the monsoon greenery looked drop dead gorgeous.
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| Gangani at Monsoon |
There's a stairway created by govt so that people can go down easily to the base of the canyon. We climbed those stairs down, and reached the base of the canyon.
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| The Wild West of Bengal |
From here wherever you look you will see extraordinary rock formation. Some looks like a pillar, some as a cave , and some formation reminds me of a dilapidated fortress.
We wanted to enjoy the place till sunset , but due to the long journey back to Kolkata, decided to leave early. The climbing up through the stairs took some tolls on our knees.
On our way Back
The way back home was smooth, through Midnapur and Kolaghat. When we were moving through the forest of Shalboni, the setting sun, played a beautiful hide and seek with us through the foliage.
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| Salboni Forest - Setting Sun through the Foliage |
Had a much needed refreshment break at Kolaghat. We wanted to have some evening meals at Sher e Punjab. But it was completely occupied, so we had our food at the express dhaba just beside Sher e Punjab. The food was good, we had chicken tandoori which was very well made. During return we did face some congestion at Dhulagarh toll plaza, which slowed us down. Bur still we safely returned to home by 930 pm.
It was a long and hectic trip of almost 16 hours. But the smooth road conditions and the natural beauty of jungle mahal, kept us moving. After almost 6 months, this hectic trip didn't make us tired, rather recharged us for the rest of the season.
