Colonial Structures in Pachmarhi

Pachmarhi, also known as Queen of Satpura, is surrounded by waterfalls, canyons, natural pools, cave temples and the forested ranges of the Satpura Tiger Reserve. Once the land of the Gond tribe under the kingdom of the Gond king Bhawut Singh, the quiet cantonment town was discovered by Captain James Forsyth of the Bengal Lancers of the British Army in 1857. He turned the place into a sanatorium for British troops. It is said that Captain James accidentally reached here in search of Tatya Tope during the first freedom fight of India in 1857. While many of the colonial structures come under the cantonment area, some are still accessible to public:

Bison Lodge Museum
The yellow bungalow with a sloping red roof was the first building to be built in Pachmarhi by Captain James Forsyth in 1862. The building was named after the Captain, who saw a herd of bison (gaur) from here. Once the headquarters of the Forest Department for more than half century, the Bison Lodge has now been converted to a museum and the most recent addition is a Wildlife and Cultural Interpretation Centre built in 2015.

Protestant Church
The church was built in the memory of Frankwood Morus, a general in the East Bengal Infantry. The cross-shaped structure is made entirely of sandstone and has beautiful arched windows and a pyramid- shaped tower on the northeastern side.

Gamma Ray Observatory
The building was constructed in 1986 was once home to a gamma-ray observatory managed by the Department of Atomic Energy of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. When observatory shifted its base owing to too much light, the building was handed over to National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), who work closely with Forest Department in the field of ecology and conservation.

Abhinav Kakkar