British landmark set to become wellness centre

Vishal Gulati

After reducing another British colonial landmark to rubble, the state government is coming up with a wellness-cum-interpretation centre to attract tourists to Craignano, being developed as a nature park amidst red and pink tulips.

A pre-Independence retreat at a height of 7,700 feet, Craignano, 12 km from the state capital and close to Mashobra, it has abundance of oak, pine and rhododendron groves and that’s what attracted the British here. They had constructed a dak bungalow or a rest house that was used as a reading room and to play billiards.

It was located at a place where Italian hotelier and photographer Chevalier Federico Peliti, who was the baker to then Viceroy of Lord Mayo, had constructed his villa. Peliti named this place after his own hometown Craignano, say the state’s archives.

“It’s really sad to see that Shimla has lost yet another landmark with the decision to raise a wellness-cum-interpretation centre on the debris of a reading room built centuries ago,” British tourist Mark Dickson said while pointing towards the remains of the dak bungalow. —IANS

He was perturbed to see the condition of the kitchen, the last British remembrance located close to the demolished dak bungalow, which is succumbing to the ravages of time and neglect.

“This structure (kitchen) is threatened with destruction if no substantial restoration work is done immediately,” remarked another tourist, Jayanta Mukherjee, from Kolkata. “If it crumbles, it will be a death of another iconic structure. The government should immediately take it over and restore it like Shimla’s Town Hall and Gaiety Theatre,” he added.

His wife Swastika said developing this place as a nature and wellness park would serve no purpose to attract the tourists, especially for ayurvedic therapies, from Shimla.

The nature park, spread over 9.60 hectares of forest land, was inaugurated in May 2017. The Forest Department has been developing a tulip garden with the plantation of 4,000 red and pink tulips in the park and the ayurveda wellness-cum-interpretation centre.

Octogenarian Ashok Guleria, who has been residing in Mashobra since his childhood, said the dak bungalow in Craignano was the famous haunt for Britons before India’s Independence.

Riding on horses, they used to come here to play billiards and read books.

Divisional Forest Officer Amit Sharma, who is in charge of the park, said that since the dak bungalow was in a state of disrepair, the government decided to demolish it. —IANS