Darjeeling GJM stir: 26 buses ferry thousands of tourists

Kolkata, June 9 (IANS) The West Bengal government on Friday ran an assortment of 26 buses to ferry stranded tourists in the Darjeeling hills to the state capital and other exit points amid a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) sponsored 12-hour shutdown in the region.

According to the government, 45,000 tourists got stranded in the hills on Thursday, when violence erupted during a protest movement by the GJM activists demanding a separate Gorkhaland state.

"Since Thursday night, 26 small and large buses have transported trapped tourists to various points in the state and a majority to Kolkata. At the moment we can't say how many are still stranded but their safety remains our priority," State Tourism Minister Gautam Deb told IANS.

The tourists had mixed reactions.

"We were extremely tense when the violence broke out on Thursday. Up until that day we didn't imagine things could take a turn for the worse. I managed to get my family on one of the buses late last night and reached Siliguri around 3 a.m.," a tourist said.

However, there were those who complained the number of buses fell far short of the requirement.

"More number of buses should have been run," said another tourist.

Darjeeling -- due to its vantage location in the Eastern Himalayas, straddling nature reserves and Buddhist sites, as well as proximity to northeast India, Nepal and Bhutan -- draws around 600 tourists per day during summer till July.

A fleet of 30 North Bengal State Transport Corporation buses from various points of the hills, including the Tenzing Norgay Bus Terminus (in Siliguri) were pressed into service on Thursday night.

The GJM has called a 12-hour shutdown in the North Bengal hills, including Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts and the Mirik subdivision, in protest against "indiscriminate police action on our peaceful demonstration".