Jungpana Tea Estate is a

tea garden A tea garden is an outdoor space where tea and light refreshments are served, or any garden with which the drinking of tea is associated. Especially in India, it is also a common term for a tea plantation. The tea garden was a part of early Eng ...

in the

Kurseong Kurseong (, ) is a town and a municipality in Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Kurseong subdivision. Located at an altitude of , Kurseong is from Darjeeling and has a pleasant climate throu ...

CD block in the Kurseong subdivision of the Darjeeling district in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n state of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

History

Jungpana Tea Estate was planted by Henry Montgomery Lennox in 1899. It was subsequently managed by G.W.O’Brien, who was forced in the aftermath of the Second World War to sell it to the ruling Rana of Nepal. The Kejriwal family took it over around 1956. After the strikes in 2017, the businessman Sanjay Agarwal bought the estate to finally sell it out soon after to the Santosh Kumar Kanoria Group.

Geography

Location

It is around 12 km from

in a rather remote and isolated place, not accessible by any motorable road. It is connected through a snaking pathway, accessible only on foot. More than 350 steep steps leads to a footbridge across a small stream, Changey Khola. Across the stream, the pathway leads to the garden tea factory. Tea estates in the surrounding areas are:

Goomtee Tea Estate Goomtee Tea Estate is a tea garden in the Kurseong CD block in the Kurseong subdivision of the Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. History Goomtee Tea Estate was planted by Henry Montgomery Lennox in 1899. It was subsequent ...

, Sivitar Tea Estate and Mahalderm Tea Estate Jungpana Tea Estate is spread over , at an altitude ranging from Note: The map alongside presents some of the notable locations in the subdivision. All places marked in the map are linked in the larger full screen map.

Economy

Apart from being promoted by Britain’s royal family,

Darjeeling tea Darjeeling tea is a tea made from ''Camellia sinensis var. sinensis'' that is grown and processed in Darjeeling district or Kalimpong district in West Bengal, India. Since 2004, the term ''Darjeeling tea'' has been a registered geographical in ...

from Jungpana is sold by Fortnum & Mason, U.K., Harrods of Knightsbridge, U.K.Mariage, France and Fauchon, France. Jungpana tea is one of the best sold brands.

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

markets Jungpana under its special tea brand in France, Switzerland, Germany and Japan. Shantanu Kejriwal, the third generation owner, feels that the international success is because of “careful ownership and understanding of the plantation.”

The human side

Jungpana has faced adversities at home. The

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) is a registered unrecognized political party, that campaigns for the creation of a separate state Gorkhaland within India, out of districts in the north of West Bengal. The party was launched on 7 October 2007. T ...

-supported trade union has at times posed problems. Lassi Tamang was the first woman factory manager at Jungpana Tea Estate.

References

External links

* {{Darjeeling District Tea estates in Darjeeling district