DARJEELING, a town and district of British India, in the Rajshahi division of Bengal. The town is a hill station and the hot weather headquarters of the Bengal Government. In 1931 it had a population of 19,903. It occupies a long ridge with two pro jecting spurs, on which are the town proper and the cantonments of Katapahar, Jalapahar and Lebong. The total area is nearly 5 sq.m., and the difference between its highest and lowest points is about 2,000 feet., Katapahar being 7,886 ft. and Lebong ft. above sea level. It enjoys a temperate climate, the average maximum and minimum temperatures being only slightly above those of London; but it has a heavy rainfall, over zoo in. falling from June to October; in these months it is often hidden in mist. On the other hand, snow rarely falls in the winter. Dar jeeling commands one of the most beautiful views in the world, for the eye goes up from the valleys to a succession of ranges culminating in Kinchinjunga (28,146 ft.), with snow-clad peaks on either side, a glit tering white wall of perpetual snow, which fills a great part of the horizon. There are several schools, botanic gardens and sana toriums for both Europeans and Indians.
The buildings and the roads suffered severely from landslips in 1899 ; protective works have been built to prevent the recur rence of such a disaster.
The district of Darjeeling has an area of 1,164 sq.m., and a population of It consists of two well-defined tracts, viz., the lower Himalayas, and the tarai, or plains, at their base. The plains from which the hills take their rise are only 30o ft.
above sea-level; the mountains ascend abruptly in spurs of 6,000 to 12,00o ft. in height. The scenery is picturesque, and in many parts magnificent. The two highest mountains in the world, Kinchinjunga in Sikkim (28,146 ft.), and Mt. Everest (29,002 ft.), are visible from Mt. Sandakphu (11,929 ft.) on the Singalila ridge. Other high points in the district are Phalut 01,81i ft.), Rishi-la (10,5oo), Tanglu (10,084) and (6 m. from Darjeel ing) Senchal (8,163) and Tiger hill (8,515 ft.). The chief rivers are the Tista, Great Ranjit, Mahananda and Balasan. Bears, leopards and deers are found on the higher hills, and elephants and tigers in the tarai and lower hills.
The majority of the inhabitants of the hills are Nepalese by origin, with Bhoteas (10,71o) of Tibetan extraction and the Lepchas (9,669). In the tarai the Bengali Rajbansis (originally Koch) predominate. Over a third of the district is occupied by forests, which cover the hills above 6,000 ft., and below 3,00o ft., these being roughly the limits of cultivation of food crops and of tea. The cultivation of tea is the main industry. There were 168 tea gardens, with an output of 14 million lb. in 1921. Cinchona cultivation was introduced by the Government in 1862 ; the factory at Mungpo is capable of manufacturing over 50,000 lb. of quinine annually. The Darjeeling Himalayan railway of 2 ft. gauge, connects the town of Darjeeling with the Eastern Bengal State railway at Siliguri, from which a branch line runs up the Tista valley to Kalimpong road.
The British connection with Darjeeling dates from 1816, when, at the close of the war with Nepal, the British made over to the Sikkim rajah the tarai tract, which had been wrested from him and annexed by Nepal. In 1835 the nucleus of the present district was created by a cession of a portion of the hills by the rajah of Sikkim to the British as a sanatorium. A military expedition against Sikkim, rendered necessary in 185o by the imprisonment of Dr. A. Campbell, the superintendent of Darjeeling, and Sir Joseph Hooker, resulted in the annexation of the Sikkim tarai at the foot of the hills and of a portion of the hills beyond. The hill territory east of the Tista was acquired as the result of the Bhutan war of 1864, and now forms the Kalimpong sub-division.