With an area of 1,200 sq. miles, the district is shaped like an irregular triangle, the southern region, the base, comprises the Terrai, a marshy low-lying area at an average height of 100 m above sea level; the apex is formed by the Phalut ridge where Nepal meets India.
The eastern frontier lies along the rivers Tista and Rangeet, beyond
is Rishi-La and Bhutan. The lower regions of the labyrithine hilly forest-clad ridges, have been cleared for the cultivation of the world famous Darjeeling tea. Started in the area of only 14,000 acres in 1872, it had risen to 7,87,000 acres by 1956.
The town itself laid out by Lord Napier of Royal Engineers, is at an altitude of 2,134 (lies between 26° 31' and 27° 13' North Latitude and between 87° 59' and 88° 53' East Longitude); moving up the hills one is greeted by smiling tea gardens, changing to firs, pines and fast moving torrents, while around 4,000 types of flowering plants and 300 varieties of ferns, including the rare tree fern. Beyond the town itself, modern elegant and sophistacated, lies nature in the raw in hills, valleys and forest, unbroken and untamed. |
