Kalimpong district

Kalimpong district is a district in the state of West Bengal, India. In 2017, it was carved out as a separate district to become the 21st district of West Bengal. The district is headquartered at Kalimpong, which grew to prominence as a market town for Indo-Tibetan trade during the British period. It is bounded by Pakyong district of Sikkim in the north, Bhutan in the east, Darjeeling district in the west, and Jalpaiguri district in the south.

The district consists of the Kalimpong municipality and four community development blocks: Kalimpong I, Kalimpong II, Gorubathan and Pedong. The towns and villages in Kalimpong District are: Kalimpong, Gorubathan, Melli Bazar, Teesta Bazar, Algarah, Labha, Samsing and Rambi.

Apart from the Kalimpong municipality that consists of 23 wards, the district contains rural areas of 42 gram panchayats under four community development blocks: Kalimpong I, Kalimpong II, Gorubathan and Pedong.

Kalimpong district has an area of 1,053.60 km² (406.80 sq mi), with Kalimpong I block having an area of 360.46 km² (139.17 sq mi); Kalimpong II block an area of 241.26 km² (93.15 sq mi); Gorubathan block an area of 442.72 km² (170.94 sq mi); and Kalimpong Municipality an area of 9.16 km² (3.54 sq mi).

What is now Kalimpong district was originally Sikkimese territory. It was controlled through two hill forts in the region, at Damsang and Daling (or Dalingkot, meaning "Daling fort"). The region itself seems to have been referred to as Dalingkot. In 1718, the Kingdom of Bhutan annexed this territory, and ruled it for the following 150 years. The area was sparsely populated by Lepchas, and migrant Bhutia, Limbu and Kirati tribes.

After the Anglo-Bhutan War in 1864, the Treaty of Sinchula (1865) was signed, in which certain "hill territory to east of the Teesta River" was ceded to British India. The precise territory was unspecified but included the fort of Dalingkot. In 1866–1867, British surveyors demarcated the area, and set the Di Chu and Ni Chu rivers as the eastern and northeastern boundaries.

The ceded territory was added to the Western Duars district at first, and later transferred to the Darjeeling district of the Bengal province in 1866. It was referred to as the "tract of Dalingkot" or "tract of Damsang", after the hill forts through which it had been administered in the past. At that time, Kalimpong was a small hamlet, with only two or three families known to reside there. However the neighbourhood of Kalimpong was well-populated with several villages, as recorded by Ashley Eden during a mission to Bhutan in 1864. Eden mentioned that the people there were well-disposed to the British administration and had frequently traded with the Darjeeling area to the west of Teesta in defiance of the Bhutanese authorities.

The temperate climate prompted the British to develop the town as an alternative hill station to Darjeeling, to escape the scorching summer heat in the plains. Kalimpong's proximity to the Nathu La and Jelep La passes for trading with Tibet was an added advantage. It soon became an important trading outpost in the trade of furs, wools and food grains between India and Tibet. The increase in commerce attracted large numbers of Nepalis from neighbouring Nepal and also the lower regions of Sikkim where Nepalis had been residing since the Gorkha invasion of Sikkim in 1790. The movement of people into the area transformed Kalimpong from a small hamlet with a few houses, to a thriving town with economic prosperity. Britain assigned a plot within Kalimpong to the influential Bhutanese Dorji family, through which trade and relations with Bhutan flowed. This later became the Bhutan House, a Bhutanese administrative and cultural centre.