The Beautiful Mirik Lake

Mirik, the youngest hill station of India, is built around a 1.25 km long natural lake. The magical hill resort lies close to Siliguri in the West Benga l state of India. The peaceful and tranquil hill resort of Mirik boasts of several nature spots. The wild flowers, lovely lake and flourishing forests of Cryptomaria Japanica trees make Mirik appear as a tropical paradise. Mirik is surrounded by tea estates, orange orchards and cardamom plantations. There is a floating fountain in the middle of the lake and a quaint little footbridge connecting the flower garden on the eastern bank to the heavily forested ridge on the west. The lake is provided with boating facilities. The place is only 49km from Darjeeling and 52km from Siliguri and can be reached from either place quite easily. This place is 1767 meters above the sea level and has a relatively thin population of 15,000 people. A relatively new tourist destination, Mirik came in the tourist map of Darjeeling District only in the 1970s. Mirik has all that it takes to attract tourists; it is surrounded by forests, flowers and is a very peaceful place, which attracts the tourists automatically.