Twenty-four youths in Darjeeling have been trained to lead tourists through a series of thoughtfully curated walking trails.
Each guide has been trained to offer not just scenic views, but also deep insights into the history, heritage and the living culture of the hills.
Raj Basu, convener of the Association for Conservation & Tourism (ACT), said these are not “ordinary” walks.
“As tourists move through lanes lined with memories and meanings, these guides will be there with the tourists all the time. Tourists will be guided through layers of local myths, legends, faiths and forgotten facts that have shaped the hill town’s character over centuries,” he said.
“With long queues of vehicles and visible damage to the fragile biodiversity and built heritage of the Darjeeling hills, these walking tours emerge as a gentle yet transformative alternative,” Basu added.
He also stated that this initiative was not merely about showing tourists around.
“The guides will help to learn responsible travel, informed engagement, and an inner connection with the land. These walks help visitors integrate their passion for exploration with a deeper knowledge of the region,” he said.
Mentors who hosted the training under the aegis of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) said the 24 were local youths with a grounding in storytelling and heritage interpretation, equipped to bridge worlds.
“They will help tourists become participants in a larger narrative of care and memory,” said one of them.
Designed by the tourism department of the GTA with support from ACT and technical support of ‘Darjeeling Walks', a company that organises walks, the initiative aims to encourage responsible, knowledge-based tourism that is easy on the land and rich in experience, said a GTA official.
“Each trail has a theme. For example, one is ‘serene Darjeeling’, a spiritual concord that reveals the town’s sacred geography through stories of monks, pilgrims, and the myths that still echo through monasteries and temples. Next is ‘merchants and markets’, the tale of Chowk Bazaar, which offers a close-up look at how tradesmen and craftsmen built an economy that continues to define the region’s resilience,” the official said.
Some other walks planned include ‘institutions and intuitions’ where the walk turns intellectual, showcasing the town’s identity as a centre of learning and ideas.
Also, the ‘scholars and myths’ walk speaks of the legends of Darjeeling, telling tales of explorers and secret missions from a time when the hill station was a magnet for thinkers and spies alike.
Another walk, the 'royal consorts of Darjeeling', takes a rarer route into the backrooms of diplomacy and imperial designs that once shaped the region’s destiny, said a source.
Those associated with tourism have welcomed the initiative. “We believe that in the coming days, tourists will take the opportunity to explore Darjeeling by foot along with the trained guides to learn about and catch the glimpses of history of this famed hill town,” said a tour operator based in Siliguri.