Kurseong
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Kurseong खरसाङ কার্শিয়াং |
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|---|---|
| Town | |
Panorama of Kurseong
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| Nickname(s): The School Town | |
 Kurseong
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| Coordinates: 26°52′40″N 88°16′38″E / 26.87778°N 88.27722°ECoordinates: 26°52′40″N 88°16′38″E / 26.87778°N 88.27722°E | |
| Country |
 India
|
| State | West Bengal |
| District | Darjeeling |
| Government | |
| • Body | Kurseong Municipality |
| • Chairman | Samir Dip Blon |
| • Vice Chairman | Kalpana Pradhan |
| Area | |
| • Total | 5.05 km2 (1.95 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 1,500 m (4,900 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 42,446 (Kurseong Municipality) |
| Languages | |
| • Regional | Nepali,Bengali Hindi English |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
| PIN | 734 203 |
| Telephone code | 0354 |
| Vehicle registration | WB-02, 73, 74, 76, 77 |
| Lok Sabha constituency | Darjeeling |
| Vidhan Sabha constituency | Kurseong |
| Website | Official Site |
Kurseong (Nepali: खरसाङ, Bengali: কার্শিয়াং) is a hill station and sub-divisional town in the Darjeeling district of the Indian state of West Bengal.
Located at an altitude of 1,458 metres (4,783 ft), Kurseong is 32 kilometres (20 mi) from Darjeeling and has a pleasant climate throughout the year.
Kurseong is 47 kilometres (29 mi) from Siliguri and is connected to the city by road and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. The nearest airport is at Bagdogra and the nearest major railway station is New Jalpaiguri [NJP], which is about 53 kilometres (33 mi) from the town. The economy is based primarily on education and tourism.
The origin of the name is unclear; stories suggest it comes from the Lepcha language word for "small orchid", kurson-rip because of the little white orchids (Coelogyne cristata) dotting the valleys, or perhaps the term for a stick made out of a local cane.(O'Malley 1999, p. 216)
The original inhabitants were the Lepcha people, who named their home "Kurseong", because every spring it was alive and bright with Kurson-Rip orchids. In the remote past, Kurseong was a part of the Kingdom of Sikkim, even before the British came to India. However, in around 1780 the Nepalese conquered and annexed Kurseong and its surrounding areas. Then came the Gurkha War, which the Nepalese lost. The 1817 Treaty of Titalia restored Kurseong to Sikkim.
With its mountains providing a cool and dry environment in the summer, Kurseong was a favourite of the British. Nevertheless, they found travelling there from the plains of Bengal difficult, even on warm sunny days because of the mountains. Although a road was built from Kurseong to Darjeeling from Titalia in the 1770s and 1780s, its irregular maintenance soon made the new route, the Military Road, almost useless. The next route, Hill Cart Road (now Tenzing Norgay Road), opened in 1861 and fared better.
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