For decades the most sought-after rooms in the Dooars were in the Hollong Tourist Lodge, a wooden building on stilts deep inside Jaldapara. It stood beside a salt lick, and guests could watch rhinos, gaur and elephants come to the lick from the verandah. The few rooms were booked months ahead, and many Bengali families remember a night there as the high point of a childhood trip.
On the night of 18 June 2024, three days after the park had closed for the monsoon, the lodge caught fire at about 9 pm. The three-storey wooden structure burned to the ground. Because the park was shut, no guests were inside and nobody was hurt.
Firefighters first suggested a short circuit in an air-conditioning unit as the likely cause, and the state government ordered a probe. At the time of writing we have not seen a confirmed plan or date for rebuilding.
The salt lick and the forest around it are still there. Morning elephant safaris, when they run, have continued to start from the Hollong area. Visitors now stay at Madarihat and other lodges and drive in for safaris, so the old way of watching rhinos from a bedroom window has, for now, gone.
Sources
- Fire breaks out at iconic Hollong Bungalow in Bengal, none hurt (The Week, PTI, 19 June 2024)
- Fire breaks out at Hollong Bungalow in North Bengal, no casualties reported (News On Air)
- Jaldapara National Park (Wikipedia)
Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
