After ghost station, get spooked by Dow Hill at Kurseong

Ravik Bhattacharya , HT, 12 August, KOLKATA: Ghost tourism has caught on in Bengal, and after a visit to haunted station Begunkodar in Purulia district, the next stop is Dow Hill in Kurseong.
Kolkata-based ‘Systematic Paranormal Investigation and Research Team’ is now offering a three-day, two-night trip to one of the scariest spots in North Bengal.
“After the successful tour of Begunkodar haunted railway station, Dow Hill, one of the scariest places in Bengal is our next destination. The ambience is scary with stories and sounds coming from the place. There is a local cemetery and a death road that are believed to be haunted. There are a lot of stories associated with the place. This will be part of our story-telling session,” said Soumen Roy, mechanical engineer and part of the organisation.
Roy is also the co-founder of the organisation, which has nearly 100 members, including seven full-fledged paranormal investigators.
“We are planning to conduct the tour on Halloween which is October 31. It will be the perfect time for such a trip,” added Roy.
According to locals, ghosts and spirits reside in the Dow Hill forest and a local school. The forest, which has been a scene of a few murder cases, has also drawn ill repute in the area. The road between Dow Hill and the forest office is locally known as ‘Death Road’ with many accounts of ghost sightings associated with it. The place is deserted after sundown.
Enthusiastic people from all walks of life have started booking slots for the ghost tour, mostly getting information from social networking sites like Facebook, where the organisers have opened a page ‘Haunted Kolkata’.
“The visitors will be taken by train to New Jalpaiguri. From there, we will take them to Kurseong in cars and put them up at a hotel there. Audio visual presentation will be given to the tourists regarding the place of visit and the horror stories associated with it,” added Roy. “After sun down, we will visit Dow Hill and a local cemetery. We will also walk on the death road. We will undertake investigations for paranormal presence in front of visitors. We have the necessary equipment,” said Roy. Each visitor will have to shell out Rs 5000 for the trip.
Interestingly, ghost tourism is catching up in Bengal, especially Kolkata, where a large number of British-era buildings exist, apart from dilapidated palatial houses of zamindars throughout the state. The recent trip to Purulia was a hit among visitors.
The fresh enthusiasm about ghosts and apparition was seen after the Robinson Street incident surfaced in June 2015, when a man was found to be living with the skeletons of his sister and his two dogs for over six months, until the cops came to know about the incident.