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 ad 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 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 at 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.