Doing this region by bus and train, honestly

The railheads are the good news. Bankura, Bishnupur, Purulia, Adra and Jhargram all work as arrival points, and Jhargram in particular is an easy train town. Around each of them there is a real bus and shared-vehicle network that local people use every day.

The difficulty is the last stretch and the return. Reaching a place by mid-morning is usually possible; getting back from it in the late afternoon is where plans fail, because the last useful service is often earlier than visitors assume. We have not verified current timings, and we will not publish invented ones.

Realistically reachable without a car: Bishnupur town and its temple core, Jhargram town and the zoological park, Purulia town, and Susunia with a short local hop from the Bankura side. Difficult without one: the Ajodhya plateau circuit, Belpahari and western Jhargram, most reservoirs and every forest road.

If you are travelling without a car, our advice is to base in one town, hire a vehicle for a single full day in the hills, and use trains and buses for everything else. It is cheaper than hiring for the whole trip and far more reliable than hoping for a late bus.