Tagged: jorhat
The Gardens That Split India's Only Ape
Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, home to India's only ape, was cut off from the wider forest by the tea gardens planted around it starting in 1880. A colonial railway line split what was left again. Here is the record, the fifteen-year tree-planting project that grew the animals a way back across, and the electrification plan now threatening that same crossing.
The Tea Planters' Association Whose Name Is on a Football Shield
Indian planters formed an association in 1935. A football shield still contested in Jorhat carries its name, and in September 2025 it was proposing a minimum price for green leaf.
About 20 of Assam's Tea Gardens Have Golf Courses
About 20 of Assam's at least 800 large tea gardens carry a golf course, brought by 19th-century planters with no other avenue for relaxation. In August 2026 Assam raised tea and golf tourism with a Japanese trade delegation.
Maniram Dewan, the First Indian to Plant Assam Tea, and the British Who Hanged Him
Maniram Dewan ran the Assam Company's tea operation, then quit and planted the first Indian-owned commercial tea gardens in the 1840s. In 1853 he petitioned the British in writing and was dismissed; they hanged him on 26 February 1858. Here is the plain record.
The Tocklai Institute
The Tocklai Tea Research Institute at Jorhat, the world's oldest tea research station: from India's first tea chemist in 1891 to the Tocklai Experimental Station of 1911, what its eleven divisions do, and the science it has produced since.