The pandal of Shakti Sangha at Jalpai More. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, Oct. 29: Goddess Kali watches from atop a toy train as an elephant walks along the tracks.

The message on Tuesday night from a Kali Puja organiser was clear and a huge hit: both the toy train, which symbolises the tourism industry of Darjeeling, and the jumbos need to be saved. In the past one year, five elephants have been killed by speeding trains. A recent spate of bandhs and strikes as part of the agitation for statehood has brought down the number of visitors to the hills.

Shakti Sangha had a hard time controlling the sea of crowd that visited its pandal at Jalpai More yesterday and today.

“But we are happy if the message has gone through. We were thinking of coming up with something new that the pandal hoppers could easily relate to the region and came up with this theme,” said Tapan Guha Roy, a club member. “Instead of concentrating on the pomp and show or erecting replicas of temples or building, we thought of working on a fusion of two happening topics with which every resident of Siliguri, and north Bengal as a whole, is acquainted.”

That the effort has been a success was evident from the volleys of questions that parents who brought their children faced. Most of the young visitors wanted to know how the goddess was linked to the toy train, the tracks and the elephant.

“It was totally offbeat, far from the splendour of pandals presented by top puja organisers of the town,” said Nisith Bose, a visitor to the pandal on Wednesday evening. “I heard many children asking where the train was going and what the elephant was doing.”

Explaining the theme of the pandal, Puchku Chaki, secretary of the puja committee, said the goddess was travelling alone on the world-famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, as there are hardly any tourists these days. “It is one of the key attractions in the hills and has been presented as a symbol of the dwindling tourism industry.”

Organisers said they were praying to the deity so that things soon returned to normal in the hills. “The death of animals, especially wild elephants on the Dooars rail tracks connecting Siliguri Junction to Alipurduar, should be stopped,” said Rupak Bose, another club member.