The local story
The Lepcha ridge the forest corporation found
Lolegaon is a Lepcha village. The Lepcha, who call themselves Rong, are the oldest known people of the Kalimpong and Sikkim hills, and their villages were here long before the Bhutanese, the British or the Nepali settlers who came later. Lolegaon's houses spread along a ridge at about 1,675 m, between Lava and the plains, with the old Kafer settlement and viewpoint about 1 km away. The 2011 census counted about 2,200 people in the village.
For most of the 20th century Lolegaon was a farming and forest village, reached on foot. That changed in the 1990s, when the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation set up tents and then cottages here, and Kolkata travellers discovered a cool, quiet ridge with a forest of huge old trees and a view of Kanchenjunga. The heritage forest, a patch of mossy oak and cypress kept from felling, became the village's showpiece when a hanging walkway of about 180 m was built through its canopy.
Lolegaon still feels like a village first. Homestays are run by local families, the forest is used for fodder and firewood as well as tourism, and in the evenings the ridge goes quiet early.
