Sikkim

Common Wild Edibles in Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Mountains are hotspots of bio-resource and cultural diversity as well important sites of traditional cultural knowledge. Mountain provides various Ecosystem services to the rural native communities living in the Himalayan region. Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya marks the beginning of the Eastern Himalayas. The confluence of biological diversity with its complex topography, high humidity along with its diverse physiographic and varying climatic zones, has contributed to the occurrence of large diversities of bio-resources. The Mountain services (MSs) can provide a wide range of benefits for human well-being, including provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services.


Dream of Gorkhaland – Through a Standpoint of Major Hill Resources

It is very embarrassing and heart wrenching for me to get sarcastic remarks being an Indian Nepali or Gorkha in the rest part of Indian soul. Living away from the cold mountain air and friendly own community of the hill for Postgraduate and M.Phil. Studies did come across many times with such sarcastic remarks as Chinese because of having ‘Chimso’ eyes and “How Nepali language while living in Bengal!” considered as some bitter remarks are the inner pains of the Indian Gorkha who resides plains or rest part of Indian soil.



Devithans of Sikkim Himalaya: A Cultural Embodiment

Devithans provide a fertile ground to testify for the rich cultural and biological diversity of the Himalayan region. The embedded belief system in societies lays the foundation of sacred sites which often evokes awe and reverence among the local people.


NAR BAHADUR BHANDARI: “नेपाली भाषा आन्दोलनका अग्रणी सेनापति अनि भारतीय नेपाली भाषी गोर्खाहरूका अभिभावक अजेय नरबहादुर भण्डारी”

सजिलो थिएन नर बहादुर भण्डारीलाई सर्व भारतीय स्तरमा नेपाली भाषा मान्यताको निम्ति नेतृत्व गर्न अनि तिनी जान्दथे यस कार्यले तिनको विरोधीहरूद्वारा नाना थरीका आरोपहरू लगाएर तिनलाई सत्ताच्यूत पनि गर्न सक्छन् भनेर तर त्यसको किण्चित पर्वाह नगरी तिनी आफ्नो कार्यमा डटीरहे जसको फलस्वरूप १९९२ सालमा भारतको संसदद्वारा नेपाली भाषालाई संविधानको आठौं अनुसूचीमा अन्तर्भुक्त गर्न कर लाग्यो अनि नभन्दै नर बहादुर भण्डारी १९९४ को बिधान सभा चुनाउमा अल्पमतमा रहेर सत्ता पनि गुमाउनु पर्यो ।


Tibet is Shangri-La, A Home We Never Saw

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama celebrated his 85th birthday on July 6 and given the border dispute with China; proposals for him to be conferred the Bharat Ratna started pouring in. In the tiny Himalayan state of Sikkim too, the demand is picking up.


Mountain Farmers of Sikkim-Darjeeling Dealing with COVID & Nature

Although Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal and the state of Sikkim have been projected predominantly as tourist sites, the mainstay of the rural population continues to be agriculture. According to Census 2011, the majority of the population here are rural (60.58% in Darjeeling-Kalimpong & 75.03% in Sikkim) and agriculture is the main occupation. Here farming communities depend on wage labour, small businesses and tourism (homestays) to augment their income from agriculture and all these were also closed during the lockdown period.


Bashu Rai and his Fight against Drug Addiction

Having spent half of his life as a drug addict, Bashu Isaiah Rai Lorung from Darjeeling decided after 15-16 years of drug abuse that being clean and sober had become a matter of life and death. So, Rai who was working for H.P Invent, one of the best corporate sector company in the business decided to dedicate his entire life helping those who have gone through the same phase as him.


Sikkim Subject Controversy: Ignorance or Deliberate Malice?

What is most baffling is the timing of this controversy. The recent skirmish between Indian and Chinese forces in Naku La and Ladakh region cannot be forgotten. More importantly, the recent publication of a ‘New Map’ by Nepal at the behest of China aimed at ruffling Indian Government cannot be ignored too. With attempts at terrorist incursions by Pakistan at its peak and repeated references to sabotaging the “Chicken Neck” region by anti-national forces, this fresh attempt to bring the contentious Sikkim Subject issue does raise certain concerns.


A Fragile Freedom – Sikkim could have done better

A small state like Sikkim can turn dictatorial very fast, we know, as we have lived under semi-dictatorship for decades. In the past 30 years or so multiple newspapers have been banned in our Darjeeling hills – Sunchari was banned, later Aja Bholi, later Himalaya Darpan – all because the ruling dispensation wasn’t pleased with what was written. Even today, in their desperate bid to shut us up or shut us down, the powers that be have filed against TheDC too over concocted charges , but irrespective of it all, we will continue to write the truth, because Freedom is worth taking a stand for.