Kangra Tea :

History :

The history of Kangra tea goes back to 1850, when some British found Kangra, Palampur, Baijnath, Bir, Sidhwari etc. areas most suitable for tea plantation. In 1852 a Superintendent of Botanical garden Dr. Jameson setup Delhi Tea Estate which became quite famous. During that period  Tea Festivals were also organized to attract traders from Afghanistan. In 1866 a British army officer Major Straut bought a Tea Garden and named it “Nishan Tea Estate”. Later on number of army officers set up their own tea gardens  there and each garden had more than 50 acre area. In 1866 Kangra tea got medal in London in an auction. But after 1892, British started selling their garden and nearly 613 acre tea land came under the possesion  of locals.1905 earthquake added to the woes of the trade.

Holta tea Estate was setup in 1854. After the devastating earthquake of 1905, annihilating both man and plantation, due to loss of garden tea workers migrated to Darzling areas and tea production has lost its paramount  position.

However the scene has changed with the setting up of the CSIR, Palampur complex, where scientists  strive to improve tea production of the once popular Kangra flavour through the scientific methods  using tissue culture techniques, producing numerous synthetic seed and hence the production has shown tremendous increase from 84 kg of green tea leaves per hectare to 200 kg green leaves per hectare. Kangra tea was given the Geographical Indication status in 2005.

In the tea gardens, the chemical control of grass weeds is quite necessary particularly during early years of of their establishment , after which the bushes attain a good spread and dense canopy which suppress weed growth in natural way. Out of various grass weeds in tea estates  in Kangra valley, the ‘Thatch’ is in abundance and devastating.

 A new concept of “organic tea farming”  growing tea without using any chemical such as pesticides and fertilizers has come into operation to explore the much needed export potentiality.

The entire tea production of Himachal Pradesh is produced in Kangra especially in Palampur valley. It was Dr. Willaim Jameson who had introduced  the Chinese green tea, had brought the seedling from the Kumaun hills to Nagrota and Bhawarna first. After testing and trying period of more than 75 years, the 4 co- operative  tea factories at Palampur, Bir, Sidhbari and Baijnath encouraged the disillusioned planters to produce quality tea and it is fetching good price now.  

The events hich proved death blow to ‘Kangra Tea’ were; disintegration of Soviet union in 1980 which that time are the largest importer, signing of WTO agreement by India in 1998, ban on the sale of Tea gardens by the state government and launch of MGNREGA yojana which which provide guaranteed employment and which led to shifting of labour from tea gardens daily wage workers.

By 31 March 2014, there were only 400 tea planters in the Kangra valley facing crunch of labour, market and publicity to Green tea of Kangra.

Tea industry in Kangra having one of the oldest  tea bushes in the country is retarded  due to paucity of funds and marketing facility, mismanagement, irrational policies, shortage of skilled labour and more a state of jealousy  and rivalry between cooperative manufacturing units. The green tea of Kangra is also famous for its medicinal value and could compete the world famous Darjelling Tea as well.  To revive Tea industry in the state, Government should make a congenial policy towards the ownership of Tea gardens.