Tea Plantation

Koi-Hai a site for those who lived and worked in North East India, particularly in the Tea industry. Includes articles, list of relevant books, photos, some grave inscriptions, tourism information

Article Industrial Resources of British India contains a section on tea Google Books 1863

The British Library has the following book in its catalogue: Taylor’s Maps of the following Tea Districts, Darjeeling, Terai, Jalpaiguri and Dooars, Darrang, Golaghat, Jorhat Nowgong, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Cachar, Sylhet, with complete Index to all Tea Gardens, published 1910

A researcher has advised: The book "The Recollections of a Tea Planter" - by W.M.Fraser has many names of tea planters in Assam (Cachar District), and Bengal (Dooars & Darjeeling Districts) Fraser starts at 1895 and goes on to 1907.

Most tea planters travelled out to India by either P&O or British India ships initially, although there were other lines that many tea planters used, such as Anchor Line and Messagerie Maritime. The usual route were either to Bombay (P&O) and across India by train to Howrah Station, Calutta, or direct liner (B.I.) to Calcutta (via Colombo).

From Calcutta, where nearly all tea companies managing agents offices were based, the planter would travel by rail from Sealdah Station in Calcutta to North Bengal (Siliguri) for those that were joining the Dooars gardens, or from Sealdah to Goalcunda in what is now Bangladesh, to board a river steamer to travel up the Brahmaputra River to various steamer stations (ghats) in Assam. This is the route my father took when he joined tea in 1938.

I was more fortunate travelling out by sea on Anchor Line, across India from Bombay to Calcutta by rail, and then to Assam by Indian Airlines DC3 Dakota.