About Us

Terrain Vanabas is a homestay in Panijhora, a forest village inside the Buxa Tiger Reserve landscape of the Dooars. It is not a hotel and does not try to behave like one: five rooms, a kitchen, a craft room and a garden, run by the people who live here.

The homestay building at Panijhora with its red laterite walls, green roof and courtyard garden under a clear sky

PLUS CODE HGRG+8HC · PANIJHORA FOREST VILLAGE · BUXA TIGER RESERVE

ALIPURDUAR · WEST BENGAL 735227 · 5 ROOMS · 1 CRAFT ROOM · 1 GARDEN

Panijhora, at the edge of the reserve.

Panijhora sits where the Dooars plain meets the Buxa hills. It is a forest village: the reserve is a neighbour, not a view. Elephants use the corridors nearby, the Sikiajhora stream runs a short walk away, and the road in is unsurfaced for its last stretch.

Households here live from farming, forest-fringe work, craft and the tea gardens. The homestay was built to add one more strand to that, one which does not ask anyone to leave the village to earn.

JC Kumarappa Technology Park and Innovation Center LLP

Why a technology park runs a homestay.

JCKTPIC works on rural livelihood and appropriate technology in the Dooars — in the tradition of J. C. Kumarappa's economy of permanence, where work is kept close to where people live. Terrain Vanabas is one of its field projects: a small, village-run enterprise that pays for itself.

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Run with the village

Hosts, cooks, guides and artisans are from Panijhora. Work and income stay here rather than leaving with an operator.

Small by design

Five rooms is the ceiling, not a stage of growth. A forest village can host a few guests well and many guests badly.

Food from the ground

The organic nutritional garden supplies the kitchen first; the rest comes from the weekly local market.

Craft as livelihood

The Art & Craft Room is a working studio for village artisans, with guests welcome to join in rather than watch.

Seen from here

Photographs by our guests.

These were captured by guests of Terrain Vanabas, on the forest roads and riverbanks around Panijhora.

A herd of wild elephants with calves grazing in green forest undergrowth, photographed by a guest

A great hornbill perched on a bare branch above the canopy under a grey monsoon sky, photographed by a guest

An elephant and calf crossing a forest road at first light with an egret alongside, photographed by a guest

Sunset over a river winding through the Dooars floodplain, photographed by a guest

Distances from Panijhora.

Rajabhatkhawa station: ~5 km
Alipurduar Junction: ~25 km
New Alipurduar: ~28 km
Hasimara station: ~30 km
Siliguri: ~145 km
New Jalpaiguri (NJP): ~150 km
Bagdogra Airport (IXB): ~155 km

Footnote

Distances are approximate road distances and must be verified. Trains reach Rajabhatkhawa and Alipurduar; the last stretch is a forest road best driven in daylight. Call +91 77352 24070 before you travel.

Enquiries

Come and stay a while.

Five rooms, full board from the garden, and the forest a few minutes away. Call +91 77352 24070.

Call +91 77352 24070 WhatsApp