At 2,800m, trekkers’ dream turns electoral nightmare

Darjeeling: A 7km-trek for eight hours on the trot with two mules for company, before a thunderstorm snapped all communication with the outside world for the night. One more trek to Sikkim early in the morning to arrange for a portable mobile charger. All this to ensure that 885 voters of the remote Srikhola village, around 16km from Sandakphu in Darjeeling — Bengal’s highest booth — could exercise their franchise on Thursday.
The Srikhola Primary School booth in Darjeeling’s Bijonbari block, at an altitude of 2,800 metres (9,186 feet), may be a trekker’s dream, but it’s a logistical nightmare for poll officials.
After an arduous journey, the team of 11 men — three election personnel, five BSF jawans, two porters and a cop from the local Loderma police station — and two mules made it to Srikhola just in time to ensure polling as scheduled. The route, at the foothills of the Singalila National Park, home of the red pandas, is incredibly beautiful, flanked by plumes of flame-red rhododendron, the path snaking through forests of chestnut and oak, but the officials hardly had an eye for it.
“It was a struggle since we left Bhanu Bhawan in Darjeeling town around 2pm on Tuesday,” confessed presiding officer Dipender Gurung, looking tired. “We travelled 103km by car to Rimbik and, from there, walked the 7km trail in darkness, the only illumination provided by our cellphone torches. We finally reached at 10.30pm. Then, a thunderstorm cut off all communication.” Attempts to construct a road from Sephi in the past have been foiled by landslides. There have been proposals to construct a ropeway, but it is yet to see the light of day.
Residents were enthusiastic about voting, and the turnout was high, matching the Darjeeling average of around 70% by 3pm. Although official figures were not immediately available, more than 500 votes had been cast by that time, said sources. Nima, 35, was among the first ones to cast his ballot. He made it a point to vote and encouraged others to do so too. After all, it is he who carries the EVMs to and from the booth. “My family has been performing this duty — it used to be ballot boxes, now it is EVMs,” he said.
Ram Prasad Rai, 68, another early voter, said the sheer effort the Election Commission takes to ensure voting at the village made him and others feel special. “Every time I cast my vote, I feel empowered,” said Rai, who has not missed an election since he became eligible to vote.
Another resident, S Dorjee, found it amusing that the tables been turned because of the elections. The journeys up and down, sometimes several times a day for even the smallest of things, is a part of their everyday existence, but come elections, and it is the administration having to take so much trouble to reach out to them. “Once the elections are over, it is we who have to trek up and down to get any kind of service. Even schoolchildren aren’t spared. It is only on election day that we can relax and have a laugh about it,” he said.
Apart from Srikhola and the neighbouring Daragaon (at 2,740 metres, the state’s second-highest), there are 14 other polling stations in the neighbouring Kalimpong hills that are extremely difficult to reach. Mules are used to carry election paraphernalia to the stations, classified as “P minus Two”, signifying poll officials have to leave two days before voting day. For other polling stations, officials have to leave a day before the vote. There are 16 “P minus 2” polling stations across the hills under the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency.
Srikhola has two trekking routes passing through it from Maneybhanjan: one to Sandakphu via Gurdum, the other to Phalut from Gorkey and Rammam.