Jhargram, a district in West Bengal which is within 200 km from Kolkata, capital of West Bengal. It's around a 4 hour journey making it a perfect destination for a long weekend trip. The road towards Jhargram district along with NH16 is very polished, so road trips are pretty enjoyable, except for traffic. Enroute you would enjoy vast stretches of forest area along two sides of the road. Jhargram had a history of unrest, hence we didn't venture out in the forest. The famous Bengali film, "Durgeshgorer Guptodhon", the second part of a detective movie series, Sona Da (Professor Subarna Sen) was shot in Jhargram. You can find glimpses of the Rajbari, Kanak Durga Temple in the film.
Jhargram Rajbari or The Royal Palace of Jhargram is the current resident of Malla Deb Royal Family. There is an opportunity to stay in the Royal Palace itself, the rooms in the ground floor are converted into a heritage hotel. The guest house of West Bengal tourism is just next to the palace and also serves as a great place for accomodation.
There's a Sri Ramkrishna Sharada Peeth Girl's High School, in close proximity to the palace grounds, which has more than 2k student. It also has a residential wing. There's an ashram inside the school compound, which can be visited for some self-reflection.
Day 1: After reaching Jhargram, have lunch and visit the following:
Eco-Tourism Tribal Museum, Deer Park (Mini zoo), Jhargram Rajbari (Palace). You can enjoy some snacks in Cafe Brew & Bite, the momos & soup were yum.
Overnight stay: Jhargram Rajbari (Palace) or Jhargram Rajbari Tourism Project (Guest House of West Bengal Govt. Tourism)
Day 2: You can visit Khoabgaon, have an early lunch and leave for Belpahari. Enroute do visit Kanak Durga Temple and Chilkigarh Rajbari. Both of them are around 13km from Jhargram Rajbari, roads are in very good condition. Kanak Durga Mandir (Temple) is a 450 years old temple which still exists in the premise. The new temple was created 100 years back. The entrance has a long stretch of lush green forest. The position for priest for the temple, have also been handed down generations after generations. The priest, who currently takes care of the worship rituals, told us about how his grandfather & great-grandfather took care of the temple. After visiting the temple, walk down towards the Dulung river. If you are visiting during sunset, you would get some really beautiful captures. Even though it's a temple, I would recommend not skipping this because of the nature and calmness. Beware of monkeys in the premise but they weren't attacking the visitors. Chilkigarh Rajari (Palace) is a very old palace. The palace have a big ground, which now looked like, is mostly used for picnics. There were 2 other temples within the complex, but both were locked.
From there reach Belpahari, which is another 30km. Overnight stay in Belpahari.
Day 3: Start your day with Ghagra Falls, this has a beautiful canyon formation admist nature. The road from Belpahari is a beautifully pitch black road. The area next to Gaghra Falls has a big picnic ground for picnic lovers. Sometimes tribal dances are also organized in that ground.
Tarafeni Barrage - It's around 2km from Ghagra Falls, road is slightly bad but okayish. Take the longer route shown in Google Maps.
For going towards Khandarani Lake & Gadrasini Hill, you have to come back to Belpahari & take the bifurcation from there. Initally the road towards Khandarani Lake is very nice, but the last stretch is really narrow and rough. Take the road before Domohani Bridge, it has a welome board too. The last road shown in maps is only for 2 wheelers, we had to take U-turn. There's a Rs30/- parking charge for Khandarani Lake but it's kind of useless. It is known that migratory birds visit the lakes but we didn't get to see much. We had to take a detour to reach Gadrasini due to road closure. On reaching Gadrasini Hill as shown on the map, we were completely baffled. We were ascending a hill, more or less a one-way route but we couldn't see any temple or ashram or cave. Disappointed we just went ahead in hope that we can get space to take a U-turn. In just about 100m we saw the ashram and there's parking space too. From the base, there's a temple in around 500m hike which can be done by senior citizens too. From there you can trek/hike to reach the temple at top.
If you are looking for a filling lunch, head to Kancha Lanka Restaurant for a thali. After this we had to head back to Jhargram, hence we couldn't visit Laljal cave & Kakrajhonre Forest. Also, you can plan to visit Dhangikusum Viewpoint & Falls. It is suggested to stay back in Belpahari & visit these.
Day 4: Enjoy your morning among nature and head back to Kolkata. On your way back, you can halt at Guptomoni Temple.
How To Reach-
Nearest International Airport: Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport. From there, you can travel by road for around 180km.