With many foreigners having been buried in Himachal Pradesh when Shimla used to be the summer capital of the British Raj, the government is planning ‘cemetery tourism’ to attract their kin to the hill state. The Department of Tourism is in the process of documenting cemeteries of Britishers across the state which would be compiled in a book and also put on its website, its secretary Manisha Nanda told PTI.

The survey work for documentation is over and compilation exercise is in progress, she added.

A number of Britishers and other foreigners died and were buried in different parts of the state during the Raj, including Shimla, Dalhousie, Kasauli and Mcleodganj. Among them was Viceroy Lord Elegan who came to India in 1862 and died in 1963. According to his last wish, he was buried in Mcleodganj, 22 km from Dharamsala. Dr John Hatichen, who had opened the first leprosy hospital in Chamba, has his grave there.

More than 400 British soldiers who died in a devastating earthquake in Kangra in 1905, were laid to rest in Mcleodganj.

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