MIRIK BUSTY – AGRO TOURISM DESTINATION

Agro Tourism – Agro tourism is the form of tourism which capitalizes on rural culture as a tourist attraction.

Agro tourism is an outgrowth of ecotourism; it allows visitors to experience agricultural life first hand . Imagine going to a farm to find out about how chickens are raised? Or pluck fresh seasonal fruits straight   from the tree; this is what agro tourism is all about.

 Agro tourism is gathering strong support from small communities as from rural people and to realize their  benefits of sustainable development brought about by different forms of travel.

Visitors have the opportunity to work in the fields alongside real framers. Agro tourism helps by improving    incomes and economic potentials of small farms, rural communities and agro based ventures throughout  the country.

In the same manner Mirik Busty, too can benefit from Agro-tourism as Mirik is very popular for the Orange orchards (Spread over five hundred hectares of agricultural land).It is one of the highest producers of oranges in North Bengal. There are so many people whose daily bread depend on orange framing. As one proceeds towards Mirik Busty, one may see beautiful orange orchards, with oranges of various sizes, from green to orange in colour, hanging in the orange trees mesmerizing the eyes of the tourist. I guess these orange gardens is and will always remain one of the natural botanical heritages, that even tourist visiting Mirik, will love to watch, see and roam around. Apart from orange farming other forms of farming like ginger, cardamom, and some useful medicinal herbs and plants are also practiced at this place.

Places of Interest at Mirik Busty

ROCK GARDEN (M.D DARA)

Set at a distance of around one kilometre from Don Bosco church, this place gives an aerial view of entire Mirik Valley; one can have the bird’s eye view of the distant Nagari-Magarjung tea gardens, Kuerseong town, the Indo-Nepal Border Pushpati, the Balasan River down below.

Apart from the views here, this place is also fascination for the un-natural outcrop of rocks. These rocks somewhat pictures as fossil remains, though I be wrong in saying so, but in the eyes of a laymen, these rock clearly depicts frames of fossil remains embedded in it.

LEPCHA VILLAGE

As the story goes Mirik once ruled by the Lepcha tribe, there is a small Lepcha village comprising of around 60-70 houses at Mirik Busty, and one can still see the small hamlets in which tribal people live, and also mingle with these people to know about their lifestyle, and hear their history.

Services Available at Mirik Busty

Presently there are two Home stays available, viz: Kancha Gurung’s Homestay and Rangbhang Homestay. As for transportation in concerned daily Jeep services are available to all major towns in Darjeeling, but since the condition of the road is in a very sad state, only 4x4 Jeeps can ply.

KANCHA GURUNG’S HOMESTAY: With the Indo-Canadian youth exchange program in the early Ninety’s, this Homestay has seen a number of tourist footfall then onwards. Set in a very ethnic ambience, this Homestay at present has two rooms which can accommodate Max of 6 Pax. Tourist and visitors come for a day or two and at times even extending their stay for months.

RANGBHANG HOMESTAY: A cottage of two rooms, which again can accommodate Max of 6 Pax, this Homestay was started few year back by a Hotel Management Graduate, who formerly being associated with the Oberoi Groups of hotels, after getting all his experience and training, started out with his ventures.