Lambi Dehar Mine - Most Haunted Place??? Fact or Rumors

Do a quick search on google “Most Haunted Places in India” or to be specific “Most Haunted Places in Mussoorie” you will find Lambi Dehar Mines listed there and then numbers of newspaper articles (some of them are big and reputed media), blogs, videos all claiming this place to be haunted. I went through most of the articles and I was not surprised by the content of articles.

50000 (yes 50000) workers died here. I don’t know how they got this number,

Witches roam here and scream every night. 

Several car and bike accidents near this area

Once a helicopter crashed here

Most of the writers of article, blogs never went there but copied content from one website to another and thus you will see many internet articles flooded with claiming this place to be “Most Haunted Place” and exectly similar content. Its all from mouth to mouth

There are few who went there and spent a night. You can find some great YouTube videos claiming they have seen shadows, heard screaming, footstep. Scary!!! Right?? But no credible evidence to back it up their claims.

I can go on and on with my arguments but let’s keep that aside for now.

History time!!! No one knows when this mine started, is there any official record? But we do know this mine was closed due to order of supreme court in 1995. I was able to find out some very old official record and supreme court order to get more info. Interestingly the name of mine was mentioned as “Lambidhar” not the “Lambi Dehar”.

Lambidhar limestone Mine of M/s Uttar Pradesh State Mineral Development Corporation Ltd. (UPSMDC) was a State Undertaking and it had 97 hectares covering the Lambidhar Hills. In Mussoorie hill range of Himalayas, Limestone was extracted by blasting out the hills with dynamite. This also resulted in cave-ins and slumping because the mines dug deep into the hillsides, which is an illegal practice per se. Due to lack of vegetation, many landslides occurred which killed villagers and destroyed their homes, cattle and agricultural lands. In 1961, mining was prohibited in the state, however it got reopened by successfully lobbying with state govt. This led to corrupt, illegal practices and there was no enforcement of safety rules.

So as per the old records, Lambidhar or Lambi Dehar mine was closed in 1995 and it was also highlighted there were no safety measures for workers. However I couldn’t find any articles related to mine workers death.

Last week, when I was in Mussoorie, I decided to explore the mines. It was always on my agenda, however, I was unsure how to reach there.

While I was enjoying early morning tea and view from my hotel room balcony. I looked in to google map and pleasantly surprised to find out Lambi Dehar was hardly 2.3 KM from my Hotel. In hill stations like Mussoorie, don’t get fooled by distance, because of hill region, it may take more than an hour to reach with several zig zag or hair pin bend roads.

Another surprise on the card.

I started looking around from my balcony (it was mountain view room) to find out where Lambi Dehar could be. And there it was (it was raining at that time, couldn't take clear picture)


I zoomed in my camera lens and I was able to identify that ruined building as Lambi Dehar (Thanks to all the pics and videos I had seen). The ruined mine is situated amidst natural beauties in doon valley. From the distance I could sense how calm and serene it is.



I hired a taxi and reached there. Govind (driver) was aware of the location and here is his version of story.

Once due to landslide more than 500 mine workers injured and trapped in mines. There was a small hospital for mine worker, couldn’t help them as unexplainable fire broke out there, thus resulting many mine workers death without any medical assistance. Now it’s the ghost of mine workers haunting the place. Then he said this is something he heard from his parents (Driver was in mid 20’s). I asked him about another rumors of witches roaming this area and screaming in the night. He was not sure about the story.

Then Govind told me that he has been to this place many times during nights. Many young tourists had asked him to take them to this place after midnight to experience the spookiness. There were tourist groups came here to celebrate the birthday party at night. Once 3 youngsters went there and within an hour they started screaming and crying. They pleaded Govind to take them back to the hotel immediately. Govind tried asking them, but they were completely in shock.

I asked Govind what he thinks about this place, is it really haunted? Govind said he doesn't think this place is haunted, for him its another ruined building in hill and now popular tourist destination.

I couldn’t agree more!!

The place is now completely ruined. The road leading to this place is in bad condition and I could see how difficult it would be driving in the night.

And there is small tea shop!!! You could imagine the popularity of the place. Though when I went in there initially, I couldn’t see anyone except the tea seller and his helper at tea shop.

I started roaming around the area. All the buildings are in bad conditions. The great Indian graffiti was all over the places. Because of the rain in some rooms there was water, mud. In some room I could see bottle of liquors, beers. So, this seems to be happening place. One of the building is three storeyed, there are stairs. When I reached at the third floor, I heard some noise and I was like..here is something interesting!!!

It turned out to be a love birds sitting at the window, they would have thought this place to be more peaceful. But they got alerted by hearing my footstep. They looked to me rather uncomfortably and I was bit embarrassed, said sorry and left the room. 

I would let the pictures talking now.















I explored every nook and corner, checked every room, trying to find out any trace of paranormal activities. But I couldn’t find any!

May be was not the right time it, maybe it was not haunted, maybe I was distracted by beauties of the hill around.



After exploring the area it was time for some tea!!! While sipping tea I asked the tea seller about the place and he seems to be more excited that it was weekend and many tourists will come to explore the place. And then he told me that he stays there late night as well and sometime sleeps over there. Is this place haunted? It does not matter to him as long as people come and buy snacks, tea from him. That’s his only source of income.

I could be see how one of the so called "most haunted place in India" is turning out to be popular tourist attraction. Feeling similar to Bhangrah fort. My thoughts on places like these remain same. If you are in places like these, its mid night, no one except two or three of your friends, a ruined, deserted place in the remote hill area. You never know if there are some animals around you, sound of wind, lack of light and history of the place will certainly spook you out.

Coming back to all the writing in newspaper and blogs.

1) 50000 mine workers died here - well, I can't find any such old newspaper article to confirm this. looked in to newspaper archives, Also looking around the area, its nearly impossible for 50k workers to work there. Even death of 500 odd worker and fire at hospital could have been easily newspaper headline but there is none. May be many people kept dieing over period of time while working.

2) Witches roam here and scream every night - I would rather go with local driver and tea seller (they denied such claims) than all those newspaper media and blogger (claiming this without any credible proof). My hotel room balcony had unrestricted and clear view to mine and I don't remember hearing any scream in nights.

3) Many cars met with accidents and one helicopter crashed here - Again I don't find any newspaper article to confirm any helicopter crash at this location but car accidents, could have happened. For that matter, it could happen to any area in Mussoorie considering the roads, hair pin bends, inexperienced driver, mist and clouds anytime. If you see my pictures carefully you could see how bad road condition are leading to this place. So claiming all those odd car accident to paranormal is laughable.

Is this place really haunted? May be, please do the proper investigation and come up with credible evidence. If it can't be done, please stop spreading rumors and think logically.

1 comment:

  1. Not haunted I spent my childhood here
    There are all make up stories
    Obviously if the place is abandoned there will be ruins




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