Mungpoo
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Mungpoo (also referred to as Mungpoo Cinchona Plantation, or rendered as Mungpoo) is a village in the Kurseong Vidhan Sabha Rangli Development Block in the
Darjeeling Sadar Subdivision Darjeeling Sadar subdivision is a subdivision of the Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal, India. Subdivisions Darjeeling district is divided into the following administrative subdivisions: Police stations Police stations i ...
of the Darjeeling district in the 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 ...
,
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 ...
.


History

The ancient
Incas The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fr ...
, in what is now
Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
, knew that the bark of a tree had miraculous property of curing
Malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...
.
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
established the botanical genus of
Cinchona ''Cinchona'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. All are native to the Tropical Andes, tropical Andean forests of western South America. A few species are ...
in 1742. Dr. Thomas Anderson, Superintendent of Royal Botanical Garden at Calcutta, started his experimental trial for cultivation of Cinchona in the Darjeeling Hills and in 1862 selected the Mungpoo hills for commercial cultivation. After successful establishment of Cinchona plantations at Mungpoo, it was extended to Munsong, Rongo, Latpanchar and Ambotia. The Directorate of Cinchona and Other Medicinal Plants started functioning in Darjeeling in 1862, initially for growing Cinchona trees and to produce the life-saving anti-Malarial drug,
Quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg ...
, from its bark. Later, other medicinal and specialised plants were also grown. The Nobel laureate poet
Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...
visited Mungpoo quite often between 1938 and 1940. He used to stay at the residence of his protége
Maitreyi Devi Maitreyi Devi (or Maitreyī Devī; 10 September 1914 – 29 January 1989) was an Indian poet and novelist. She is best known for her Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novel, '' Na Hanyate'' (). Biography Devi was born in 1914. She was the daughter ...
, who was herself a renowned poet and novelist. Maitreyi Devi's husband Manmohan Sen was at that time the director of the quinine factory in Mungpoo. The bungalow has now been converted into Rabindra Bhavan, a museum containing Tagore's photographs, paintings, writings, and other paraphernalia. The museum also contains furniture that was designed and carved by Rathindranath Tagore. Maitreyi Devi recorded the stays of Rabindranath in her book ''Mangpute Rabindranath'', the English translation of which is called ''Tagore By The Fire Side''.


Geography


Location

Mungpoo is located at Mungpoo is 32 km east of
Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...
. The elevation varies from .


Area overview

The map alongside shows the eastern portion of the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region and a small portion of the
Terai The Terai or Tarai is a lowland region in parts of southern Nepal and northern India that lies to the south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Sivalik Hills and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This lowland belt is characterised by ...
region in its eastern and southern fringes, all of it in the Darjeeling district. In the
Darjeeling Sadar subdivision Darjeeling Sadar subdivision is a subdivision of the Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal, India. Subdivisions Darjeeling district is divided into the following administrative subdivisions: Police stations Police stations i ...
61.00% of the total population lives in the rural areas and 39.00% of the population lives in the urban areas. In the Kurseong subdivision 58.41% of the total population lives in the rural areas and 41.59% lives in the urban areas. There are 78 tea gardens/estates (the figure varies slightly according to different sources), in the district, producing and largely exporting
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 ...
. It engages a large proportion of the population directly/ indirectly. Some tea gardens were identified in the 2011 census as
census town In India and some other countries, a census town is designated as a town that satisfies certain characteristics. India In India, a census town is one which is not statutorily notified and administered as a town, but nevertheless whose population ...
s or villages. Such places are marked in the map as CT (census town) or R (rural/ urban centre). Specific tea estate pages are marked TE. 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.


Demographics

According to the 2011 Census of India, Mungpoo Cinchona Plantation had a total population of 25,000 1,109 (49%) were males and (51%) were females. There were 64 persons in the age range of 0 to 6 years. The total number of literate people in Mungpoo Cinchona Plantation was 1,023 (92.25% of the population over 6 years).


Education

Saraswati Higher Secondary School is an English-medium coeducational institution established in 1945. It has facilities for teaching from class V to class XII. Gyanpith Higher Secondary School is another coeducational school located at Rungbee Division of Mungpoo which is under the WBCHSE curriculum. Sarada High School is also a coeducational school located at Mungpoor Division of Mungpoo which provides education up to Madhyamik level. Labdah Junior High School is another coeducational school which provides education up to class 10. Kasturi High School is the only school in Mungpoo which is Nepali medium till class 10 for both boys and girls. Other than these school there are numerous private/primary schools in Mungpoo viz., St. Joseph's School, St. Mangal Academy, Good Start Academy, Dolphin Nursery School, Labdah CP Primary School, Gramsewak Primary School, Hill Angels' School, St. Anthony' School, Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Welfare School, Green Hill Academy, Siddhartha Memorial School, Green Mountain English School, etc.


Healthcare

Mungpoo Government Cinchona Plantation Hospital is located below Nali Dara (which is the central meeting place of the whole Mungpoo region). Dowhill Central Hospital, with 40 beds, is located at Dow Hill and Latpanchar Cinchona Plantation Hospital, with 12 beds, is located at Latpanchar.


Road connections

Mungpoo is located at a distance of 52 km from Siliguri, 40 km from Kalimpong and 32 km from Darjeeling town. Nearest Railway station is New Jalpaiguri Railway Station (NJP) and nearest Airport is Bagdogra Airport (IX-B). Mungpoo is almost 88.8 km far away from Gangtok and 67.3 km away from Mirik.


References

{{Darjeeling District Villages in Darjeeling district