On a clear Saturday morning in late February, Arjun Mehta, a software engineer from Dehradun, arrived at Mussoorie’s Library Bus Stand, fully intending to walk the Mall Road like everyone else. A local chai vendor pointed him west instead, toward a forest road most visitors never take. Two hours later, Mehta was standing on Benog … Read more
At 6:15 a.m. on a Tuesday in late March, a retired schoolteacher from Dehradun stood at the Benog Hill trig point — elevation 2,240 metres — and watched the first light catch the snow line on Bandarpunch. She had taken a shared taxi from Library Bazaar for ₹60, walked the forest trail for under two … Read more
The conventional Mussoorie itinerary has not changed much in two decades: Mall Road in the evening, Kempty Falls by afternoon, a cable car ride if the weather holds. That formula works for millions of visitors each year — but it also means that Jabarkhet Nature Reserve, a 100-hectare private conservation forest on the Chakrata road … Read more