Tading in Bhutan’s Samchi district, as seen from Totopara. Picture by Biplab Basak

Jalpaiguri, Dec. 23: Tourists who had thought of enjoying December amid the lush forests and tea estates of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar are now busy cancelling plans or changing their itinerary, signalling huge losses for the tourism industry in a season that is supposed to be the most lucrative.

The Bhutan offensive against the Indian insurgents based in the Himalayan kingdom has led many tourists to cancel tickets and bookings made for a vacation in the scenic areas of the Dooars, many of which have the Bhutan hills as the backdrop.

Debu Chatterjee, a tour operator and a hotel owner at Lataguri, said: “We are facing massive cancellations. This is the season when profits peak but this time there is no sign of such a thing happening. There were a large number of bookings in all the wildlife spots of the district but with the anti-insurgency operation in Bhutan the tourists are cancelling all visits to this district. Most of them are moving towards the Darjeeling hills now. Our only hope is that the operation will stop soon and the situation would return to normal.”

Tour operators, hotel owners and travel agencies in the region have all reported the same trend.

The state forest department officials have confirmed that tourist inflow has dropped since December 15, the day the operation was started by the Royal Bhutan Army, and currently come to a standstill in Jalpaiguri. The district’s border with Bhutan is at present being guarded by a large number of Indian Army jawans.

“Many tourists who had reserved the forest bungalows in Hollong, Murti, Gorumara, Jaldapara and Jayanti several months ago have cancelled their bookings. Unlike other years, tourists are not feeling safe to visit the region,” a forest official said.

“We had been to Nepal from Calcutta and had thought of visiting Bhutan. We came to Jalpaiguri from Nepal and reached Jaigaon on a private vehicle. It was on our way to Jaigaon that some policemen informed us about the anti-militancy operation and asked us to return to Siliguri,” said Roger Stringer, 40, from Belgium, who had come with his wife, Hella.

Tourism is not the only casualty of the army operation. Residents of Jalpaiguri employed in Bhutan have also been dealt a blow.

“It is a problem for us. The transport system has been severely affected. We are now forced to use our motorbikes to move around. Even so, the vehicles get checked innumerable times between Birpara and Gomtu,” said a resident of Birpara who works in a cement factory in Gomtu, Bhutan, some 16 km from Birpara.

“On one hand, the Indian Army and the police insist on inspecting the vehicles and on the other side, the RBA does the same. Despite the heavy army surveillance, however, we do not feel safe any more,” he added.