The effects of a strike in India's Darjeeling hills over demands for autonomy have spread to the mountain state of Sikkim, scaring away tourists and causing huge losses to hoteliers, officials said on Wednesday. The strike has been called by ethnic Nepalis or Gorkhas living in the Darjeeling hills to demand a separate "Gorkhaland" state be carved out of the eastern state of West Bengal.
Strike supporters have forced tourists out of Darjeeling, a Himalayan resort town, shut down hotels and also blocked a key national highway that connects the state of Sikkim to the north with the rest of the country.