Stakeholder Workshop on Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR)

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) for Community & Environment through a Stakeholders Workshop with UNESCO in Jan 2002 for Capacity building of Heritage & Tourism for Sustainable Development & Management.

Inscription of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) as a World Heritage Site.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) achieved world-wide fame for a number of reasons: -

1. It is a gateway to the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountains and a land of mystery and imagination. The spectacular landscape unfolds as this 2 feet gauge railway labours uphill at about 10mph criss-crossing the road.

2. Darjeeling is an old hill station and has attracted visitors and writers from all over the world. It is famous for Darjeeling Tea. Located midway between Calcutta & Lhasa, it is right on one of Asia’s great cultural fault lines. To the south is the Hindu civilization and to the North is the Buddhism of Central Asia. While travelling on DHR, a transition can be felt in ethnography and architecture. The population changes from mainly Bengali to a mixture of Sikkimese, Tibetan, Bhutanese and plains Indian. There is also a geographical change from the heat and dust of the vast thickly populated fertile plains of India to the harsh freezing conditions of the spectacular Himalayas.

3. DHR has tiny 4-wheel locomotives (some over 100 years old) like living legends. A traveler experiences the sounds, smells and romance of a by-gone era.

4. The layout in curves, loops, “Z’s”and steep grades crisscrossing the hill cart road over a Himalayan landscape is recognised as a work of genius.

5. This small Railway is popularly known as the Toy-Train. Darjeeling is famous for other “T’s” – Tea, Timber and Toy-Train with a double “T”.  

National Rail Museum (India), the focus of India’s Rail heritage, submitted a proposal to UNESCO on 29^th June 1998 for inscribing the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) as a World Heritage Site. DHR is a work of genius & technological achievement of 1881. It has social & cultural importance. It is beautiful and has out-standing universal appeal. As one of the outcomes of the Industrial revolution and based on its unique features, it is considered to be of lasting significance to mankind. It must be saved for posterity. These are all the criteria necessary for World Heritage. Accordingly, various significant aspects and initiatives being taken for this great system by the Indian Railways were brought to the notice of UNESCO by National Rail Museum. Interaction, site study and UNESCO’s evaluations continued through 1999. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee inscribed DHR as a World Heritage Site on 2^nd December 1999 stating the following reasons: -

      i.        The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is an outstanding example of the influence of an innovative transportation system on the social and economic development of a multi-cultural region, which was to serve as a model for similar developments in many parts of the world.

     ii.        The development of railways in the 19th century had a profound influence on social and economic developments in many parts of the world. This process is illustrated in an exceptional and seminal fashion by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

UNESCO’s inscription described the DHR as follows: -

“The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is the first, and still the most outstanding, example of a hill passenger railway. Opened in 1881, it applied bold and ingenious engineering solutions to the problem of establishing an effective rail link across a mountainous terrain of great beauty. It is still fully operational and retains most of its original features intact.”

UNESCO’s inscription of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway as a world heritage site in 1999 drew the attention of the Indian Railways to the following recommendations of ICOMOS for the DHR: -

         i.            The creation of a heritage conservation unit;

       ii.            The establishment of a buffer zone along the length of the Railway line and the stations;

      iii.            The establishment of an adapted management plan.

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