It became a sweet Sunday for Meghetar, an emerging tourist destination in Darjeeling district.

Strawberries grown in this village perched at an altitude of 5,700 feet in Bijanbari block flew off the shelves in Siliguri on Sunday a day after its harvest.

“It is not just about the strawberries but also about our dream to encourage allied activities to promote rural tourism getting the wings to soar high,” said Suraj Sharma, assistant director of tourism, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

The GTA tourism department through this pilot strawberry project wants to encourage activities like fruit and vegetable plantation, apiculture and fisheries and livestock to develop tourism in rural areas.

“You cannot just have homestays and barren lands with no activities. We want to merge all activities keeping tourism at the centre,” said Sharma.

The hill body zeroed in on Meghetar, which has 100 households with a population of 600 and a region that primarily depends on agriculture for their sustenance, though tourists are also visiting the scenic village of late. Meghetar as of now has four homestays.

“We selected five farmers, distributed 5,000 saplings free of cost and on Saturday they harvested 45 kilograms of strawberries for the first time. They were sold in Siliguri on Sunday at Rs 350 per kilo,” said Sharma.

The farmers can expect to harvest 50 kilos of strawberries every week for the next three months.

GTA had tied up with a horticulture firm, Himalayan Florica, for the project.

“The results are better than we expected. Meghetar strawberries are much sweeter and bigger in size compared to strawberries found in other parts of the region. The strawberries we have produced here are on a par with the best quality produced in India, if not the best,” said Niraj Chhetri, director Himalayan Florica.

Meghetar is known for large cardamom, chayote squash and amlisho (broom grass).

packaged for sale in Siliguri. Telegraph photo

“We will encourage farmers to take up agriculture by building market linkages. In fact, a chain of hotel from Darjeeling has decided to pick up all the strawberries and vegetables grown in this village from next week,” said Sharma.

The GTA is trying to bring together private buyers and cultivators so that growers grow vegetables that have more demand.

More farmers want to get into strawberry farming because of this recent success, but many are being encouraged to take up farming of other fruits and vegetables.

“We have also formed a society which is now into apiculture,” said Sharma, who added that these activities would also be a tourist draw.

The GTA plans to reach out to other villagers slowly and try to replicate the effort in most places.