The name Jalpaiguri may come from the Bhutanese term je-le-pe-go-ri, which means ‘a place where warm clothes are bought and sold’. Others attribute the name to the more common Bengali term jôlpai “olive” and thus the name meaning “town of olives”. This district is the divisional headquarter of North Bengal has its special importance in respect of tourism, forest, hills, tea gardens, scenic beauty and after all a wide variety of tribes. It is well connected by rail, road and air from any part of the country. The district is primarily rural with more than 80% of rural population. It has also high percentage of SC/ST population. Relatively sizeable population resides in Tea Gardens and Forest villages which are isolated and mostly inaccessible. According to HDI report of West Bengal, 2004, Jalpaiguri rank's 10th out of 17 districts. The performance of tea industries(the only industry)is not satisfactory. The only prospect for the development of this district is to exploit the tourism potentialities. The main objective of this paper is to through some light on the eco-tourism prospects of Jalpaiguri.
Eco-tourism, HDI, Jalpaiguri
