Soom Tea Garden is a village in the Darjeeling Pulbazar CD 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 ...

Etymology

Soom is a Lepcha word meaning triangle. The tea garden is triangular in shape.

History

Soom Tea Garden was planted by J.Jerdin in 1860. Williamson Magor and Company owned the garden for a century. The Chamong Group took control of Soom Tea Garden, then in bad shape, in 2001.

Geography

Location

Soom Tea Garden is located at . Soom Tea Garden is located 18 km from

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 ...

. It is bounded by North Tukvar Tea Estate in the north, Phoobsering Tea Estate in the east and Singtam Tea Garden in the south. The planted area of the tea garden is at a height of .

Area overview

The map alongside shows the northern portion of the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region.

Kangchenjunga Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and ...

, which rises with an elevation of is located further north of the area shown.

Sandakphu Sandakphu or Sandakpur at is a mountain peak in the Singalila Ridge on the border between India and Nepal. It is the highest point of the ridge and of the state of West Bengal, India. The peak is located at the edge of the Singalila Nation ...

, rising to a height of , on the Singalila Ridge, is the highest point in West Bengal. In

61% of the total population lives in the rural areas and 39% of the population lives in the urban areas. There are 78 tea gardens/ estates (the figure varies slightly according to different sources), 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 ...

in the district. 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, Soom Tea Garden had a total population of 3,578 of which 1,757 (49%) were males and 1,821 (51%) were females. There were 290 persons in the age range of 0 to 6 years. The total number of literate people in Soom Tea Garden was 2,458 (68.70% of the population over 6 years). Most of the residents are either Nepalese, like the Chettri, Brahman, Mukhia or from the Tibetan Buddhist tribes like the Rai, Limboo, Lepcha and Tamang.

Economy

from this garden mostly from Chinary cultivar and almost the entire production is exported to Europe. Soom Tea Garden is in the process of becoming fully bio-organic. It employs 692 permanent workers. The Chamong Group provides 500 houses. Many amongst the others are indirectly dependent on the tea garden.

Chamong Group

The Chamong Group is the largest producer of organic

and

Assam tea Assam tea is a black tea named after Assam, India, the region of its production. It is manufactured specifically from the plant ''Camellia sinensis'' var. ''assamica'' (Masters). Assam's people tried to plant the Chinese varieties in Assam soil bu ...

. It produces 3,000 tonnes annually and employs 10,000 persons (including 7,000 women). It owns 4 tea estates in Assam and 13 in Darjeeling. The tea estates in Darjeeling are: Pussimbing, Chamong, Tumsong, Lingia, Nagri Farm, Bannockburn, Dhajea, Shree Dwarika, Ging, Soom, Phoobsering, Tukdah and Marybong. It exports tea to the US, Europe, Japan and the Middle East.

Education

Soom has 3 local language primary schools and 1 English-medium primary school. There is a high school 2 km away.

Healthcare

The Chamong Group runs an 8-bed hospital with a visiting doctor and trained medical staff.

References

External links

{{Darjeeling District Villages in Darjeeling district