[GoodMorning]

During the Spring we cannot desist from visiting the flame fire-red areas, actually this time the roads and the hill areas of the Manbhum or the Chotonagpur all bloom flame fire-red. Yes, you’re right, I am talking about Butea Monosperma or The Flame of the Forest or the Palas or the Palasha.

The most sighted areas are Bankura, Betla Forest areas, Netarhat, Purulia, Ranchi, etc., and also in the State of Uttar Pradesh.

It is a small-sized dry-season deciduous tree, growing to 45 to 49 feet tall and the growth rate of the trees are short like, young trees grow a few feet per year. The leaves are pinnate with a petiole of 3 to 6 inches and three leaflets, each leaflet is 4 to 8 inches long. The flowers are 2 to 3 cm long, generally the common colours seen are - bright orange-red, red and yellow.

Last year we been Jharkhand to quench our thirsts for the Teak, so were thinking where to plan our visit this year for the flame fire-red, accordingly one of our Seniors suggested the Purulia side, no we don’t want to visit any hills, but the foothills and want to stay at a place where we would be surrounded by the Flame of the Forest. Accordingly, we started working out, and again our said Senior found a stay beneath the Matha Hills in Purulia Ajodhya Hills jurisdiction. The resort is just a basic stay and about 20 to 27 Bustard Teaks sprawling over its campus. So booking done for a team of 5 heads and we started counting down to hit the roads with our ever trusted Innova-Crysta.

On the 8th March, 2024 we left Kolkata early morning by 8.30 am, we planned a detour, via NH-16; we went via Kolaghat, Lodhashuli, Ghatshila, Mahulia, Banduan and Balarampur till our destination at Sankupi, a total distance of 343 Kilometers and Toll Plazas at - Jaldhulagori, Debra and Balibhasa, Toll fees of Rs.130, Rs.75 & Rs.85, respectively.

After covering 82 Kilometers around, we stopped by a road side dhaba, Star Hotel and Dhaba at Siddha Bazar after Kolaghat, at 10.30 am and had our breakfast.

After breakfast we started again, after driving about 88 Kilometers we reached Lodhasuli, the road though the forest areas started, we stopped at a road side tea stall and had tea, our regular breaks after 1 hour.

After 20 Kilometers odds we entered our neighbouring State, Jharkhand from there drove around 62 Kilometers and we reached Ghatshila. Stopped for our lunch at Bibhuti Bihar Ghatshila, its located just beside the Highway.

We resumed our journey after lunch and immediately after crossing about 9 Kilometers we took the left side service road to reach Mahulia to proceed further on the Mahulia - Banduan Road, the roadside beauty started changing, small village mud-huts with various paintings outside the walls, the elderly people were seen taking care of the khatals and pets, some were seen carrying bundles of dry bushes and woods for their cooking or for the evening fire arrangements as the cold was still prevailing during nights.

The road was a rural road with several speed breakers and traffic both ways, so we had to slow down the speed of our car. After 14 Kilometers we entered the West Bengal and after a kilometer we reached the Duarsinsi Resort, managed by the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation, a serene area echoed by the chirpings of several birds. We stopped for a while clicked some; snaps and started again towards Chawk Bazar, Banduan, another 15 Kilometers, but the main beauty started emerging here, it’s Ghat type road passing through the hilly areas of the Katapahar and it was obviously a compulsory stop for us.

The first glimpse of our desired The Flame of the Forest, abundantly, by the roads side.

Palas or the flame of forest


Palas by the road side


Mahulia - Banduan Road


The team.

After half an hour we resumed our journey next stop would be after 65 Kilometers, directly to our resort at Sankupi. We could barely attain a speed of 45 Kilometers per hour through the village areas, after Dhabani we again entered Jharkhand and till Bamnidih in West Bengal, the Dalma was witnessed all through the left side of our road. We crossed the Tata Purulia Highway and entered Balarampur, the road is passing through the bazar area of the town so it was again very slow speed but once we crossed the railway tracks near Barabhum Station the range of the Ajodhya Hills appeared, after crossing Duarsini More, we took right turn, a small road going through the Sankupi Village towards the foothills of Matha Pahar, this entire stretch of 2 Kilometers was completely off-road type driving with no passages for any car coming onwards, so we had to be very cautious about that and then after 15 minutes we reached our Resort at around 5.30pm.

The sun setting down for the day

It was just a small resort of about 15 Cottahs of rectangular shape area with 27 Teak trees around, but as the cold was still prevailing only a few were at bloom. We checked in, after the sunset the temperature dropped and was around 16* C by 7pm and the sky was deep dark with several stars glittering.

After evening tea, we sat for a while beneath the open sky watching shooting stars and the other stars above us, it was like the entire galaxy came close to earth. We don’t know till when we were there, we regained senses when we got the call from the kitchen for our dinner, after having sumptuous food we retired into our beds for the night.

Next day we got up early morning, we thought of walking around the village, slowly the sun rose and it was like golden all over. We found our desired the flame fire-red in several Teaks, we started rushing from one to another to click several pictures.


Chamtaburu Hills

My clicks of the Palas found there in the locality




Palas within the resort.

Ultimately at around 8 am we returned back to our resort, though we found several Palas but our anticipation for the flame fire-red didn’t meet our expectations here. We decided to leave, at this one of our friends pointed out to visit the Bolpur side for some more flowers on the way as the road would pass through Purulia, Adra, Raghunathpur, Panchet Hills, Panagarh and Ilam Bazar forest areas.

We checked out at around 9 am for Bolpur, a distance of 250Kilometers approx. After crossing Balarampur we took Tata Purulia Highway, we didn’t take our breakfast till then, we crossed a famous Shiva Temple dating back to the 1894 year, we stopped offered our prayers and then started again, soon after crossing Tamna we saw a forest area of several eucalyptus trees, we decided to stop for having our breakfast beneath the trees, took out our foods and made ready and had there.


Breakfast menu.

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The Team pose

After breakfast we started again, after a few minutes we entered the Purulia town, we took Ranchi Purulia Highway bypassing the busy town area and then from the District Judges bungalow we took Deshbandu road and then we took Barakar Road after crossing the Purulia-Muri railway level crossing.

After driving for 11 minutes we reached a place named Charrah, it is an abandoned airfield, during World War II, the airfield hosted the United States Army Air Force 444th Bombardment Group. Charra was originally designed for B-24 Liberator use. In 1943 it was designated as a B-29 Super-fortress Base for the planned deployment of the United States Army Air Forces XX Bomber Command to India. Advance Army Air Forces echelons arrived in India in December 1943 to organize the upgrading of the airfield and thousands of Indians labored to upgrade the facility for Super-fortress operations. On 11 April 1944 the 444th Bombardment Group arrived after a month-long deployment over the South Atlantic transport route after completing training at Great Bend AAF, Kansas. The deployment consisted of traveling to Morrision Field, Florida, then south though the Caribbean to Natal, Brazil. From Brazil the South Atlantic was crossed arriving in West Africa and re-assembling at Marrakesh, Morocco. The group then flew north and west from Morocco through Algeria and Egypt, before arriving at Karachi. By the time the group arrived at Charra, the month-long trip had taken its toll on the aircraft and personnel. Support elements of the group included the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Bomb Maintenance Squadrons; the 12th Photo Lab, and the 25th Air Service Group. Post World War II the entire area is abandoned and presently in some of the areas of it the West Bengal Police cam has been setup.

Then we reached Raghunathpur, the famous Joychandi Hills is located here only, we saw the Hills from the State Highway itself. After driving for another few kilometers we saw famous Panchet Hills, slowly it emerged on our left hand side of the road and it was visible till Sarbari More, that means for 9 kilometers the Panchet Hills was visible constantly on our left side. Earlier we have been to Panchet Hills and the Baranti Lake, so we decided to move ahead towards our ultimate destination. We crossed the Disherghat bridge over the Damodar river and after reaching Neamatpur we took Kolkata-Delhi National Highway for reaching Panagarh-Darjeeling More. On the way we stopped at Trishul Hotel, near Sudihi, Asansol, for having lunch. We resumed our driving thereafter, drove for another 109 kilometers and we reached Prantik near Bolpur and checked in a hotel. The sun was about to set, so after check-in we kept our luggage and immediately rushed for Sonajhuri Haat. Within a few minutes we reached there.


Sonajhuri Haat

It is festival of colors and visual pleasure, never seen such huge show of artisan's creation in open sky.


Local artisans

On the banks of the Khoai River. It's an open-air market where you can buy tribal items and many more stuff while listening to wonderful folk Baul songs sung by some local Bauls along with tribal dance. We sat in front of a folk singer who was singing famous Baul songs and started listening, some of us been for marketing some local artisans, by the settling of night the Haat time was over and we returned to our hotel.

Throughout the day we only found a very few Teak on the Purulia-Barakar Road and since crossing Disherghat Bridge we didn’t get any further glimpses of it.

The next day after getting fresh we visited the Kankhalitala Mandir.

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The Mandir premises.

And after offering prayers we returned back to our hotel had breakfast and by the noon we checked out and started way back to Kolkata. On the way we thought of stopping by the famous Khadimati restaurant for lunch. After lunch we started via the Guskara-Nabab Haat Road passing beside the lush green pasture fields of Burdwan. By 5 pm after driving for about 150 Kilometers we returned to our respective places of abode.

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