Dan Singh Bisht
Vast properties purchased by his father and him at each location led to his immersion in local lore as a folk hero, who rode on a horse, with hands always full to give.
He collapsed in his suite at the Grand Hotel (Kolkata) due to health and stress caused by the anti-business pandora's box the newly independent India opened.
He had recently sold the plant he had set up at a discount, sensing no solution, as the Government had refused his machinery to leave Calcutta Port despite having first authorized Dan Singh Bist to take a hefty loan to procure the same.
The fate of Beldanga sugar mill is unknown, as Dan Singh Bisht fell into a coma the day after procurement and his daughters were mostly minors.
His prime real estate in Nainital, several architecturally significant British cottages with lake views, of several acres each such as Primrose, Cambridge Hall, and Grasmere are alienated, and as well as several bungalows and timber depots scattered across his areas of operation.
The 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) fruit producing and eucalyptus tree export power house 'Dhara Farms' near Moradabad was taken by the Government under new anti-landlord rules.
On 19 September 1919, his father Deb Singh Bisht, a small-time shopkeeper from Jhulaghat, took out a loan to buy 2,000 acres (810 ha) of Chaukori estate from a British company.
Dan Singh not only managed to purchase the Berinag estate adjacent, from Captain James Corbett[3] but found the secret ingredient that had enabled the Chinese to outcompete Indian teas in next door Lhasa.
On 20 May 1924, at the age of 18 years, he purchased a brewery from the British Indian Corporation Limited and on those 50 acres (20 ha) began to build a home and office for him and his father at Bisht Estate.
This set him to work on the purchase of Smuggler's Rock Estate, to donate the land and building for the first girl's hostel at DSB college.
During 1920–25, Bisht lobbied Maurice Garnier Hallett, who was the Governor of the United Provinces, for an all-weather road from rail head Tanakpur to Pithoragarh.
Once his proposal passed, the road increased trade, commerce, tourism, and strategic resources a gift that continues till this day.
Other Philanthropy in his childhood haunts The first three-story Dharamshala or rest house for pilgrims those who follow 'Dharam' was built by him in memory of his grandfather Rai Singh Bisht.
Drinking water in the village of his forefathers in Kuintarh, various dispensaries in Berinag, and the tales of the innumerable people whose education he paid for either because of need, or merit, is part of Kumaoni folklore.
The whole town of Berinag is unique for in that every single public amenity from schools, to hospitals, playgrounds, parks, charitable centres, dispensaries, are all donations of D S Bisht and Sons.
Their youthfulness enabled managers and advisors to gain control, and the empire of sugar mills, tea gardens, and timber, collapsed.
