Hills and mountains, Mymensingh
Gabrakhali Garo Hills Tourist Centreগাবরাখালী গারো পাহাড় পর্যটন কেন্দ্র
- Time needed
- Half a day.
167 green hillocks of the Garo hills on the Indian border in Haluaghat, with views across to Meghalaya, a lake and a Garo museum.
At a glance
- Opened
- Begun 2019, built up from mid-2020
- Area
- 125 acres
- Hillocks
- 167, about 70–200 ft high
About
Along the Indian border in Haluaghat, the Garo hills reach into Mymensingh as a run of low green hillocks. In 2019 the district administration, under deputy commissioner Mizanur Rahman, began turning 125 acres of government land at Gabrakhali into a tourist centre; the work picked up in mid-2020 and has grown since under a master plan. There are 167 hillocks here, from about 70 to 200 feet high, with steel stairs up the bigger ones and named tops such as Chitakhla, Jashur, Mitali and Batasi.
From the tops you look across the border to the hills of Meghalaya. Below are a large lake with paddle boats, water falling from the hills near the entrance, a Garo museum, a picnic spot, a children's park, wooden bridges and a rest house, and the agriculture office has planted cashew, agar, tea and coffee on the slopes. Hajong and Banai families once lived in Gabrakhali, and the Garo hills run on east into Dhobaura upazila.
It is still rough at the edges: there is no mobile network inside, no clean drinking water, little good food and nowhere proper to stay, and the approach road is poor.
Getting there: Bus from the Shambhuganj bridge in Mymensingh to Haluaghat, then bus or CNG via Gobrakura to the Border Road; about 14 km north-east of the Haluaghat bus stand.
Things to do
- Climb a hilltop for the view into Meghalaya.
- Take a paddle boat on the lake.
- See the Garo museum.
Good to know
- Carry drinking water and food; there is little of either inside.
- There is no mobile signal inside the centre.
