Jalpaiguri, Oct. 26 -- Is time playing tricks on travellers along a forest road in the Dooars? A curious claim that mobile phone clocks suddenly jump ahead by half-an-hour near Lataguri has sparked intrigue along the route towards Murti and Chalsa, bordering the dense greenery of Gorumara National Park.
According to local accounts, some travellers have noticed a 30-minute difference on their mobile phone displays near Mahakal Than (Altar of Lord Mahakal), situated close to a small overbridge on the forest road. However, whether the phenomenon occurs consistently or has been independently verified remains unclear. The location is already associated with local beliefs. Travellers passing through the forest corridor often stop at Mahakal Than to offer prayers before proceeding, with some believing that the ritual protects them from encounters with wild elephants. In local belief, elephants are also associated with Mahakal Baba and Ganapati, the elephant headed God.
The reported clock anomaly has now added another layer of mystery to the forest stretch. Debarshi Ghosh, a Geography researcher and Geography lecturer of Dhupguri Girls' College, cautioned against interpreting the reported incident as an actual change in time.
"Although local solar time varies across different longitudes, geographical location alone cannot cause a mobile phone clock to suddenly advance by half-an-hour. It is necessary to investigate whether GPS, the mobile network or a technical issue related to time settings is responsible," he said, adding that scientific investigation was necessary to establish the actual cause.
Smartphones with automatic time settings may obtain time or time-zone information through network services and other system inputs. Technical glitches, incorrect settings or network-related issues can sometimes result in an incorrect clock display. However, there is no established scientific evidence that Lataguri's geographical location could trigger such a sudden change.
The half-hour difference has prompted comparisons with Bangladesh, which follows UTC+6, 30 minutes ahead of India's Indian Standard Time (IST), set at UTC+5:30. However, this similarity does not establish that phones in Lataguri are switching to Bangladesh time. India's geographical spread has also prompted discussions about separate time zones, with CSIR-National Physical Laboratory research in 2018 examining the possibility of two time zones for the country.
For now, the Lataguri claim remains unverified. Repeated tests using different phones, a reliable reference clock and checks of network and time-zone settings would be necessary to determine what is happening. Until then, the forest road's half-hour mystery remains a curious blend of local belief, technological uncertainty and scientific inquiry.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.