Rudrapur
— the plain city that grew up under the hills.
Not only on a wall.
“Rudrapur is the headquarters of Udham Singh Nagar district, on the Tarai plain of Uttarakhand, about 250 kilometres east of Delhi and an hour south of Nainital's foothills. Founded in the sixteenth century and reshaped by the SIDCUL industrial belt after 2003, it is now a city of factories, sugar mills, and student hostels around the technical university.
Rudrapur, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Rudrapur sits on the Tarai plain in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand, at about 209 metres above sea level and roughly 250 kilometres east of Delhi. The Kichha river runs to the south. The city was founded around 1588 by Raja Rudra Chand of the Chand dynasty of Kumaon, from whom it takes its name. The State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand opened a large industrial estate here in 2003, drawing Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, and Nestlé. The current population is around 155,000.
The air at Rudrapur carries the wet heat of the Tarai. The monsoon arrives in late June and the rains last through September, dropping over a metre of water on the plain. The foothills above, around Nainital, stay cooler by ten degrees. Winter mornings bring thick fog along the Kichha river and the Sharda canal, often slowing the Lucknow road. The city sits at the edge of Jim Corbett National Park's southern buffer, and elephant warnings are still posted on the Kashipur road.
Most travellers reach Rudrapur on the Delhi-Nainital road or the Moradabad-Kathgodam rail line. Pantnagar Airport, twelve kilometres west, runs daily flights from Delhi. The G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology at Pantnagar, opened in 1960 as India's first agricultural university, anchors the academic side of the city. Atal Park and the Drone Pond near Awas Vikas are the local evening walks. Kashipur, Haldwani, and the Jim Corbett gate at Ramnagar are all within an hour and a half by road.