28 km away from Siliguri on National Highway - 31A, Kalijhora is a small village on the roadside. The town would be budging with activity during the winter months when a horde of people from the plains used to visit Kalijhora for a picnic.
Today the small village has lost its glory as the most popular picnic spot in the area. A huge Dam is being constructed over Teesta which has changed the landscape and made the picnic spot inaccessible.
There is a famous bungalow managed by the Public Works Department (PWD) at Kalijhora. The bungalow is known as the spot where the famous Amitabh Bachchan movie “Barsat ki Ek Raat” (Bengali ‘Anushandhan”) was filmed. Later the bungalow was destroyed during the Gorkhaland movement of the 1980s and a new building has now been constructed on the spot. The forest office at Kalijhora also has a forest bungalow which is occasionally let out to tourists.
The Dam at Kalijhora can now be crossed on a small vehicle and on the other side of the river you can drive through steep roads to reach previously inaccessible villages such as Panboo, Barbatey, Joretar, and Makum. On the other side of Teesta (the Western Side), there are several tourist destinations close to Kalijhora including Latpanchar, Mongpoo, Takdah, Chota and Bada Mangwa, Peshok, Lamahatta, etc. Towards the south of Kalijhora, Sevok and Mongpong are nearby tourist attractions.
