Clawed by Demons

A craggy slice of the wild west in bengal’s grand canyon.

- Sugato Mukherjee

We are heading to Bengal’s Grand Canyon. It’s a little after 6 a.m. on an uninspiring morning as my family sets out from the small West Bengal town of Chandrakona. The West Midnapore landscape we drive through is wilted and dreary. The tiny town of Chandrakona was once prominent under its 16th-century Rajput rulers. It even finds mention in Ain-e-Akbari, the record of Mughal Emperor Akbar’s administration. Not much of the old glory remains however, except for some crumbling mansions and a handful of terracotta temples on the forest-covered fringes of town. But the settlement is a convenient base for exploring the ravines and gorges of Gongoni Danda, a place often described as the Grand Canyon of Bengal.

After driving for about 30 minutes, we swerve right off the road to follow a dirt track flanked by sporadic clusters of cashew and acacia trees. A little later, the car heaves to a halt at a clearing and we spill out.