This weekend I made a trip to a village called Dabaipani (Mineral Springs). It is 30 minutes drive from Darjeeling town, but I had to spend few days there to find what I was looking for.

This village consists of 14 hamlets widely spread across 1200 acres of hills. They are a part of the erstwhile Harrison’s and Mineral Springs Tea Estate, which closed down sometime in 1950.

Post 1950 the people survived selling: tea leaves to neighboring gardens, firewood, timber and charcoal from the garden reserve forest, which comprised about 600 acres of land. Post 1960 with the hope of the garden opening receding and the reserve forest depleting rapidly, the people started grabbing the land and started cultivating traditional food grains. The land grabbing was based on might so the people own anything from ½ acre to 12 acres of land. Continue Reading