Kipling Trail (also known as Kipling Road) is the old walking route that connects

Dehradun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...

with the

hill station A hill station is a touristic town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The English term was originally used mostly in Western imperialism in Asia, colonial Asia, but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by ...

Mussoorie Mussoorie () is a hill station and a municipal board, in Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hil ...

in India. It was the only means of reaching Mussoorie before the cart roads, for tongas, or roads for automobiles were constructed. It is named after the English novelist

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

, who is believed to have walked the trail in the 1880s, though there is no definite evidence. The trail fell out of use when cars or buses became the preferred mode of transport, but the route is being revived by nature, colonial history and hiking enthusiasts.

History

In the 1880s, novelist

is believed to have trekked this trail and the walk described in his novel '' Kim'' is thought to have been through this route. With the construction of an

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

road in the early 20th-century, going right up to

, the heritage walking route gradually fell out of favour. Today, the path is being revived as it is increasingly being used by hikers and nature or history enthusiasts, who prefer walking up to the

over driving. In his book ''The Kipling Road'', author

Ruskin Bond Ruskin Bond (born 19 May 1934) is an Indian author. His first novel, ''The Room on the Roof'', published in 1956, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Bond has authored more than 500 short stories, essays, and novels which includes 69 books ...

explores the many stories of people who walked the old route from Rajpur to Mussoorie.

Route

The 9 km-trail takes between 2 and 3 hours to complete, and begins at Shahanshai Ashram in Rajpur village, Dehradun. It winds its way up through five steep inclines that are locally called ''paanch kainchi'',

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

for "five scissors". The halfway point is at Jharipani, which is surrounded by '' Quercus leucotrichophora'' or banjh oak forests. The path then leads to Barlowganj near

St George's College, Mussoorie St. George's College, Mussoorie, is an all-boys boarding and non-boarding school in Mussoorie, in the state of Uttarakhand, India, affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations board. The school, an all-boys resident ...

, then goes past

Wynberg Allen School Wynberg-Allen School is a boarding school in India, founded in 1888. It is located at Bala hissar in Mussoorie, India. The alumni of Wynberg Allen School are known as Alwynians. History From a meeting in Kanpur in 1887 of friends, Mr. Powel ...

, finally reaching

Library. Along the route lies an old railway tunnel, remnant of a failed project, and British-era rest houses. In 2017, parts of the trail were cemented without providing necessary outlets for drainage, and it was reported that road construction was "ruining the path's beauty". There were protests by the public, stating that vehicular traffic would harm the

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

along the route and change the nature of the heritage path.

References

External links

Been There Doon That - Kipling Trail information
{{Dehradun, state=collapsed Hiking trails in Uttarakhand Tourist attractions in Dehradun Dehradun Mussoorie Geography of Uttarakhand