Dow Hill — the headless boy of Kurseong's haunted hill station, West Bengal

Dow Hill in Kurseong, West Bengal, is considered one of the most haunted places in eastern India. The area centres on Victoria Boys' School, a colonial-era boarding school, and the surrounding forest known as the 'Death Road' for the number of murders that have occurred along its length. The most commonly reported apparition is a headless boy who walks through the forest near the school, sometimes accompanied by the sound of footsteps that seems to come from all directions at once. The school corridor is said to produce the sound of footsteps when empty, and teachers have reported objects moving in locked classrooms. Woodcutters working in the surrounding forest have described being followed by an unseen presence and feeling invisible eyes watching them from the trees. The Darjeeling hills, where Kurseong is located, have a long history of ghost stories connected to the British colonial era — the tea plantations, boarding schools, and hill station bungalows built by the British have all accumulated supernatural legends. The fog that frequently envelops the hills at 5,000 feet, reducing visibility to mere metres, creates conditions where every sound and shadow becomes amplified.