70 years of Land Rover

A unique celebration of the iconic brand

To celebrate 70 glorious years of the inception of the legendary Land Rover, one has to look as far as a year post Indian independence. On April 30, 1948, the very first of the Land Rovers was presented to the world at the Amsterdam Auto Show. It has, ever since, captured the imagination of four-wheel drive lovers. But the story of the legend would be quite incomplete if we didn't give due credit to the man behind the wheel.

Turn back the pages of history and step into the world of Maurice Wilks, chief engineer Land Rover and to the sleepy British county of Anglesey, where he farmed with his WWII American Jeep. To his dismay, Wilks was perpetually short of replacement parts and therefore decided to come up with a prototype that he could use both as a farm vehicle and on road as well. And this is how the Land Rover was born 70 years ago. Today, the humble Rover has evolved and spawned an entire new range of four wheel drives which includes the Series Land Rovers, Discovery, Discovery Sport, Defender and of course the Range Rover.

Celebrating this very occasion we're in Maneybhanjang a small town in the Darjeeling district that's surrounded by pristine hills. Why in Maneybhanjang you ask? For starters, this hill town has it has had a long-standing affair with then British-owned, now Indian Land Rover (which stands thick to this day). Some might even give the off roader, it's fair share of credit for being instrumental in cutting short a journey that in them days would've taken several gruelling hours—to almost half.

Ask any local whose wrinkles testify for his age, and he'll reiterate the fact that the treacherous route from Sandakphu, (a pass bordering Nepal situated at a height of 11,900ft) and Maneybhanjang was a part of a major trading route, and by its very nature took several days to traverse. It was used by the locals to haul goods and rations with the help of ponies and mules. This was until the trusted Land