Paradise lost: the rise and fall of India's British colonial era hill stations

Dances, bridge parties, races and high teas were once the order of the day in India's fabled hill stations.

Colonial era Brits built these settlements in the 19th century from Ootacamund and Kodaikanal in the south, to Darjeeling and Shimla in the north, to establish a 'home away from home' where they could live in comfort and take refuge from the heat.

Often, the towns would feature Tudor style cottages with lace curtains, manicured gardens and gabled roofs. There would be lakes and picturesque chalets with fanciful British names like Pinewood Rest, Tipperary and Eagle's Retreat. There would be hotels, clubs, gymkhanas, golf courses, churches, bungalows and mall roads.

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In short, they were to their colonial era masters a little slice of paradise.

Today, however, many hill stations have fallen into disrepair and are buckling under the pressures of unbridled development and rampant tourism, and are no longer the images of serenity they once were.

The British wanted to escape the heat of the plains and take their memsahibs to the hills, where they could recuperate and socialise. The viceroys and the councils often had military cantonments at the hill stations, as they were strategic locations.

The British looked for both isolation and elevation after the 1857 rebellion; they wanted to be far away from the hot plains (and related dangers like cholera and malaria). They also looked for convenience of travel from colonial cities like Madras, Kolkata and Delhi.

One of the more well-known hill stations is Mussoorie, which in the mid-1820s became the first sanatorium in British India.

Mussoorie and the more than 100 other hill stations that followed reminded the British of their home - with streams, valleys, mountains and lakes. The stations were usually developed at altitudes between 1,500 and 2,500 metres, where the climate was agreeably British. Many were located in pockets of biodiversity with unique flora and fauna and microclimates.

Often, hill stations grew up near to missionary settlements. Many British children were sent to elite boarding schools run by missionaries and modelled on the lines of British boarding schools.

The British also wanted to avoid the natives.

As Dane Kennedy wrote in his book The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj, published in 1996: "Though it was desired to banish the Indian to some other horizon, the very enterprise of establishing hill stations demanded the labour and services of many Indians, and in time the Indians, though initially outnumbered by the British, would come to have an ineradicable presence at these stations."

By the early 1900s, narrow gauge railway lines connected these hill stations to the plains, making the journey easier and more accessible to all. By the 20th century, rich and elite Indians started building houses at the stations, and spending summers there with their families.

In the 1990s, increasing domestic tourism brought unbridled and rampant development. The hill stations became popular spots for honeymooners and holidaying families.

Soon sprawling resorts were popping up on the hill sides of the once-serene stations. These brought a slew of problems for the fragile ecosystems.

Suddenly there were traffic jams, pollution, water shortages and a rampant misuse of natural resources.

Most of these hill stations were built to accommodate select number of colonial families. Their roads and sewage systems were not designed for the huge influx of tourists that is today to be found in these places.

It is not unusual for hill stations with populations of around 10,000 to have as many as 125,000 tourists visit in just a couple of months in the summer. In 2019, Ooty with a population of around 80,000 had one million tourists in the April-May period.

"Not long ago the hills from the Himalayas to the Western Ghats were dotted with tiny hamlets and small cart roads or trails, that led you to them. The devastation due to development that brought wide and winding roads has taken much away. Now modern sprawling hotel complexes, bringing jobs and development have robbed the hills of their spirit," said Shoba Mohan, founder of Rare India, a collection of boutique hotels and homestays

"I'm afraid responsible tourism will just be a buzz word without the government's ability to [carry out] policies against unsustainable building design, protocols for garbage, misuse of resources and carrying capacity led regulations," Mohan added.

Most of these hill stations have water shortages due to unplanned growth and burgeoning populations, as well as lower rain and snowfall in recent times.

Hill towns like Darjeeling, famous for its tea estates, have archaic water systems that were constructed to meet the demands of only around 25,000 to 30,000 citizens during the British period. About 130,000 people now live there.

Most of the migrant population in these small hill stations live in slums and shanty towns adding to the civic problems. These are popular shooting locations for the Indian film industry, leading to large numbers of film crew flooding hotels and putting more pressure on the infrastructure.

"A hill station was envisioned to be serene and soothing. Somehow packets of chips, empty bottles and construction material seem to find their way into the general landscapes," said Rohit Sethi, founder of Seclude hotels, which has properties in hill stations like Shimla, Kasauli and Mussoorie.

"You try to hide it from your perfect Instagram picture but the eye sees it, the brain ignores it and the heart moves for a fraction of a second only. Why can't we see ugliness before we see beauty?"

Added Sethi: "The hill stations of India thrive on tourists and so should it be. What is missing is the empathy and love for the hills which sometimes comes from within and sometimes requires enforcement."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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