Exploring the Netarhat Hills and a Tryst with an Epic Ray Film - Betla, Kechki and Ranchi

Second part of the blog - 

Day Three : We made our way out and headed back to our resort. After a quick round of morning tea, we bathed, packed and got ready to checkout. We had a sumptuous breakfast of puri with aloo sabji and loaded our luggage into the car. By 10:15 AM we were on our way to Betla a drive of 94 kms. We had to first retrace our way through the ghat section (see photo)

heading downhill before hitting flat plains and then taking a left at Chatakpur to continue on our journey through Betla. The drive towards Rud was largely on flat land with some undulations with the Netarhat range of hills running to our left. The drive with the Garu range appearing in front to the North gave us goosebumps as images from the iconic film ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ flashed before our eyes. I was extremely excited about finding this remote forest rest house nest at the intersection of two rivers on our exploration today. Stopping for a tea break and to stretch our legs as the last 40 kilometres of the drive was through dense forests. We crossed the North Koel River near Garu (see photos) and our maps showed us about 32 kms to Betla from where we would head to Kechki. We stopped at one bend in the road to listen to jungle sounds and click some photos (see photo). 

A word of caution after crossing the river most of the terrain runs jungles of the Palamau Tiger Reserve and should be crossed during daylight hours. We came across a water crossing at Haratu where the road is almost at the level of the jungle stream, this allows elephants to cross through. We observed there were no culverts in this section of the road wherever it crossed a jungle stream. (see photo)

As we were visiting in winter this was not an issue, but it must be risky to traverse this road during the monsoon where water is likely to overflow on to the road. The road winded through dense jungle and we kept a look out for elephants as there were signboards indicating elephant zones. After an uneventful drive we finally reached the outskirts of Betla town and crossed the gates of the Betla National Park where we were supposed to stay that night. After crossing Betla, our excitement grew many fold as we were now just 8.5 kms from the Kechki Forest Rest House, the very bungalow where Satyajit Ray had shot his iconic film ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ which translates to Days and Nights in the Forest. After Betla the road was mainly through flat open country, till we reached a forested stretch again. A little later we came to a point where the road forks into two roads, the right one leading to the Auranga bridge across the river and the left one called Kechki Sangam Road leading to the famed forest rest house. The metalled road came to an end, and we suddenly saw a bungalow on our right (see photo) while the road continued on the left leading to a bridge

across the Koel River. Time changes everything, and it was evident that the forest rest house had been renovated with structural changes as well as a boundary wall surrounding it. With our car parked outside we stepped in observing the garage beside the bungalow and the famed well which has now sadly been sealed, who can forget the iconic scenes of Rabi Ghosh (Sekhar) and Soumitra (Asim) bathing at this very spot. Moving towards the rest house bungalow we noticed multiple changes including the balconies covered by grill, in the film they were open. In the film, from the steps in front of the balcony one had a panoramic view of the meeting point of the two rivers Koel from the left and Auranga from the right. Sadly, there is a boundary wall now that covers this view, and one has to walk to the boundary wall to see the confluence of the two rivers and sand bank. Walking inside the bungalow we found the rooms and rare photographs of the shooting of the film adorning one of walls as one enters the building from the left (see photos). After clicking some videos and photos for memory we stepped out again and took a cemented path down to the riverbank. There was a Jharkhand Tourism Board sign ‘Kechki Sangam’ where the rivers meet. Sadly, this is a picnic spot and while there were no picnics in progress the place was littered with rubbish at places. I took photos of the sandbank and rivers flowing through their confluence. There are now bridges on both the Auranga river on the right and the Koel River to the left of the bungalow. My mental model suggested that the place where the famous ‘Memory Game’ was shot would be to the left of the bungalow. Tracing my steps to this spot I observed that the tree cover was much lighter now. It made me reflect on how poor we are at preserving our heritage and natural places.

It was now past 3 PM in the afternoon and in the excitement of capturing these moments for posterity we had forgotten about lunch. So, we ordered lunch at a small restaurant and decided we would head to Palamau Fort immediately after lunch. Finishing lunch by 4 PM, we drove back to Betla and then took the road for the Palamau Fort about 12 kms away. It was now already past 5 PM so we rushed inside to see the fort complex now sadly in ruins. Palamau Fort was built in the 17th century and comprises of an old fort and new fort. The fort is near the bank of Auranga river and is surrounded by jungles of the Palamau Tiger Reserve. We explored an abandoned well now covered by branches of nearby trees. There was also an underground passageway which we could not explore as it was already approaching dusk. Even, the approach road from Betla cuts across sections of jungle. Fort was rather impressive though sadly in ruin (see photos). We climbed to the upper story of

the fort and clicked photos. With the sun setting below the western horizon, we headed back to our vehicle. It was completely dark by the time we reached the gates of Betla National Park. Our accommodation was on a tree house just beside the boundary of the park. Settling into our room, we ordered some evening tea and snacks. We sat in the veranda in darkness observing the grassland in front of us where we could make out the pale green eyes of the deer grazing outside. It had been an extremely eventful action-packed day. We order dinner, though the room service was not great, but the chicken was good! Settling in for an early night, next morning we clicked some photos of the tree houses (they were actually built on elevated platforms, not really on trees). Next morning after

(images of Betla National Park from balcony of Tree house as well as images of Tree house) breakfast we checked out of Betla with the plan to head back to Ranchi by evening. As we had some time on our hands, we decided to visit the Indo Asahi Glass Factory in Bhadani Nagar near Patratu. Anindya had fond memories of visiting this place as a child, so we decided to give it a try. We left around 11 AM and it was almost a 5-hour drive to Bhadani Nagar. Enroute, we stopped for tea near Sasang. Finally, near Chandwa, the road bifurcated and we took the route that travels via Patratu Valley, a scenic drive across the hairpin bends. We stopped at Patratu Dam to click photos and then continued towards Bhadani Nagar. It was a bit confusing once we were nearby, as the factory has shut down over time. We had to ask locals to get the correct entry into the colony surrounding the factory. Anindya was emotional as he came here multiple time during summer breaks to visit his maternal uncle who was employed here at the glass factory. We clicked photos and videos, though the place was sadly in ruins. With the advent of dusk, we headed back to Ranchi to our hotel Treebo Winsome Resort in about 90 minutes. As it was the last night of our road trip, we headed to the hotel bar on the rooftop next to the pool and enjoyed a couple of drinks, which was followed by dinner. Reminiscing our journey through the last couple of days was a very enjoyable experience. The following morning, we had breakfast at the café and then checked out of the hotel around 10:30 AM. We started out on our drive back to Kolkata which included a lunch stop at a picturesque roadside dhaba, Rang Rasiya near Jamshedpur. We made a few more pitstops for tea and finally reached Kolkata around 8 PM. The exploration for hidden gems continues. 

Exploring the Netarhat Hills and a Tryst with an Epic Satyajit Ray Film - Ranchi and Netarhat

Netarhat, perched high at a height of 3700 feet on the Chotanagpur plateau, is fondly known as the ‘Queen of Chotanagpur’ for its cool air, stunning sunrises and sunsets and thick pine and sal forests. While I had made numerous trips to Jharkhand, Netarhat was the missing jewel of my travels to this beautiful part of India. So late in 2025, Anindya and me decided to visit this region in January 2026. Coupled with Netarhat was my long-cherished dream to visit the shooting location of Satyajit’s Ray cult film ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ shot in the summer of 1969 and released commercially in early 1970. Ray’s epic film was largely shot on location at Kechki Forest Rest House located at the junction of a sangam or meeting point of two rivers Koel and Auranga. With a 4K restored version of the film screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025, there was a renewed interest in seeing where this amazing film was shot. I started researching the Kechki forest rest house and its approach roads as we were planning a road trip. The next week was spent in researching articles, blogs and YouTube videos on Netarhat and Kechki. Based on my research of the area, we built a 5 day plan – first day drive from our meeting point to Ranchi, second day drive from Ranchi to Netarhat in Latehar district in Jharkhand with local sightseeing, third was checking out of our resort in Netarhat and driving to Betla and then from Betla to Kechki Sangam where the Kechki forest rest house is located, following which we would explore the Palamau fort and spend the night at Betla National Park, the fourth day would involve visiting Patratu valley on the drive back to Ranchi and the final day was driving back from Ranchi to Kolkata. This journey is covered in two blogs (this part covers the journey to Ranchi and Netarhat).

With all our preparations done including buying some essential items for the trip, we set out from Kolkata on the morning of 17^th January. We met for breakfast at the gorgeous Club De Golf restaurant overlooking the Eco Park Golf Arena, a 9-hole, 20-acre golf course in New Town Kolkata. Taking a table overlooking the spacious golf course, we had a sumptuous breakfast of omelette and toast crowned with some Assam tea.  (see photos)

With our luggage’s, loaded, and GPS set for Ranchi we headed out in Anindya’s SUV 500, our beloved partner of many memorable road trips over the years. We headed towards the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport and took a left to head into the Belgharia Expressway crossing the Hooghly River near Dakhinseswar Kali Temple. Anindya stepped on the gas as we headed towards Kolaghat. We took a tea break near Kharagpur and finally stopped for lunch early afternoon at the Jagson Dhaba after crossing the Bengal border after Sardiha. Interestingly as the road winds into Jharkhand, the Subarnarekha River runs almost on a parallel course to the road. With lunch over by 2 PM, we were on the road again heading towards the city of Jamshedpur. Near Galudi, there was a police blockage on the highway, causing us to take a detour on a scenic road that ran parallel to the highway which crossed the Uranium mining towns of Jadugora and Narwapahar run by the Uranium Corporation of India. We crossed a small dam and reservoir on the Subarnarekha River. (see photos) 

As we drove past Narwapahar, I mentioned to Anindya that I had done my winter training at Narwapahar almost 29 years back. It was almost 5 PM when we entered Jamshedpur where we stopped at Zudio store where Anindya bought 2 t-shirts as it was warmer than expected. We finally turned into NH-43 towards Ranchi as dusk was approaching rapidly. By 7:15 PM we wound into a road that took us to our pitstop for the night at Treebo Winsome Resort in Ranchi. After checking in and getting fresh we settled in for some evening snacks with Irish Bushmills whisky. We made plans for the following morning where we would head to Netarhat, a distance of about 156 kms. We had selected this hotel as it was close to the highway, and one did not have to cross the city traffic to head out again.

Day Two - the following morning, we checked out around 10 AM after a sumptuous breakfast of idli, poha and omelette followed by steaming black coffee. Setting our bearing for the hill station of Netarhat we set out. We hit the NH43 again and crossed the Dhurwa Dam enroute. The terrain was largely flat with some gentle undulations. We crossed the Koel bridge at Songra (see photo below) 

and finally stopped for chai at the town of Ghagra.  We stopped at a scenic location with the hills in the background for a few photographs. It was a sunny day with amazing visibility, and we enjoyed the serenity of the surroundings. Proceeding along the Ghagra Netarhat road we slowly entered the ghat section where the road narrowed as we traversed the sharp hair pin bends. We came to a junction point where the road forks into two, the left arm heading to the Lodh waterfalls about 60 kms away and the right arm heads straight through to Netarhat. We stopped for some amazing photographs at some of these hair pin bends and what struck us was the raw beauty of the Netarhat hills. Adorning the walls of these hair pin bends were some lovely murals and paintings done by tribal artists (see photo below). 

At around 2:30 PM we reached the Netarhat market and decided to have a quick lunch as were famished by then. Parking the car near a tea stall, we headed for lunch of Maggi noodles and some steaming milk chai in an earthen pot. Maggi noodles with egg sprinkled over is a pure soul food for a hungry traveller. Sipping chai, we made our plans for the evening. We drove to our homestay, the Koel View Resort and checked in.

Having settled our luggage in our cottage overlooking the garden, we headed out again this time to the pine forest which Netarhat is famous for. Parking the car on the roadside we set out to explore the serene pine woodland, once a summer station in colonial times, now a traveller’s paradise. The forest floor adorned with pine needles, as the setting sun peeped through the dense canopy at places. It was truly a beautiful place to walk around and soak in the calm surroundings far from city life (see photos).

A quick glance at the watch showed it was already 5:15 PM and we had to head to the Magnolia Sunset Point a short drive away on the same road. We were there in about 5 minutes and settled into a viewing gallery at about 5:25 PM with sun beginning to set. It was a beautiful setting as we stood on a ridge with sun setting across a wide expanse of hills, the only unsettling point was the constant chatter and shouting of tourists around us. Makes we wonder, why can’t we enjoy nature in silence, soaking in the beauty of the setting sun. With mobile and camera reading I kept capturing the moments through videos and still photos. Though no photo can do justice to such a beautiful setting as the sun dips across the horizon with a plethora of colours from orange to red to crimson. Suddenly it went below the horizon and daylight began to fade. We slowly made our way back to our SUV 500 and headed back towards our resort. We stopped near the Netarhat lake to click photos as dusk fell and silhouette of the lake against the lighter background of the darkening sky (see photo). 

The car’s headlight showed as a beacon on the road adjoining the lake. By this time night had fallen and we wore our jackets as we headed back to our car and drove back to the Koel View Resort. Settling down after an action-packed day, we sat in the balcony of our cottage and sipped whisky with some kebabs and potato chips. We were reminiscing our older travels as well as planning for the next day where we planned to drive past Betla to Kechki Sangam. We settled down to an early night as we planned to see the sunrise the following morning.

Day Three – Anindya was up early at 5 am and nudged me to get up. We soon got ready and left in our vehicle to the Koel view sunrise point a very short drive from our resort. The sunrise point had ample parking space and a nice garden with a watch tower and a viewing balcony to watch the sunrise. We decided to use the viewing balcony and got a good vantage point to click photos. By now it was around 5:40 am and while light of dawn was lighting up the hills with pinkish hue that was rapidly turning to orange. Suddenly the top edge of the sun broke across the horizon bathing the valleys with the first rays of the morning sun. We kept clicking videos and still photos and there was a bit of a crowd by then. 

Continued on the next part of the blog.