Darjeeling District is the northernmost district of the state of West Bengal in eastern India in the foothills of the Himalayas. The district is famous for its beautiful hill stations (and is often referred to as the Queen of the Hills) and Darjeeling tea. Darjeeling is the district headquarters. Kalimpong, Kurseong and Siliguri, three other major towns in the district, are the subdivisional headquarters of the district. Mirik, another town of the district, has been developed as a lake resort since the late 1970s.
Geographically, the district can be divided into two broad divisions, the hills and the plains. The entire hilly region of the district comes under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a semi-autonomous administrative body under the state government of West Bengal. This body covers the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong. The foothills of Darjeeling Himalayas, which comes under the Siliguri subdivision, is known as the Terai. The Terai is bounded on the north by the mountains, on the south by Kishanganj district of Bihar state, on the east by Jalpaiguri district and on the west by Nepal. Darjeeling district has a length from north to south of 18 miles (29 km), and a breadth from east to west of 16 miles (26 km). As of 2011 it is the second least populous district of West Bengal (out of 19), after Dakshin Dinajpur.