NAME BAGDOGRA AIRPORT AS ‘BISHWABEER (VISHWAVEER) CHILARAI AIRPORT’
Off late, numbers of opinions are in the air regarding renaming one of the militarily strategic airports of the nation i.e. Bagdogra, located in the plains near Siliguri of Darjeeling district in West Bengal. Not going by the various names as suggested by mainstream people of West Bengal and people with vested interests which hold no much water, I wish to pen down my suggestion which is purely based on the sacrifices and contributions made by the local Rajbanshi people while constructing Bagdogra airport during World War-II. As I heard from my late father, our forefathers were too glad to give their fertile lands to the Govt. of British India, free of cost, for construction of a military air base for the Royal Indian Air Force during World War-II. As the area was full of jungles with lush green trees where tigers used to roar in the nights, the air base came to be known as Bagdogra which connotes roaring of tiger in local Rajbanshi-Kamta language (Bag denotes Tiger and Dogra deno