Fifty years ago there was no lake at Mirik. The hollow below the town was a marsh, thick with sweet flag, a reed locals called bojho. Cattle grazed at its edges and the tea gardens of Thurbo rose on the slopes around it. It was a quiet corner of a working tea district, with no hotels and few visitors.
In 1969 the West Bengal tourism department began acquiring 335 acres of land from the neighbouring Thurbo tea estate to build a hill resort. The marsh was turned into Sumendu Lake, a footbridge was thrown across it and gardens were laid out on its banks. The project was meant to give the Darjeeling hills a second, quieter resort.
The finished tourist centre, with the lake and a day centre, was opened by Jyoti Basu, then chief minister of West Bengal, in April 1979. A small settlement called Krishnanagar grew on the far shore, and today it holds most of Mirik's hotels and restaurants. Mirik Bazar, the older market up the hill, kept its role as the local trading centre.
The garden beside the lake and the arched footbridge, the Indreni Pul, are named after Savitri Thapa and Indreni Thapa, remembered locally as soldiers of the Indian National Army. Their names are a quiet reminder of the region's ties to the freedom struggle. Most visitors cross the bridge without knowing the story behind its name.
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Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
