EXOTIC NILGIRIS-3(TEA GARDEN AND TEA FACTORY)

The history of tea in the Nilgiris has an interesting link with the Chinese. When the Opium war ended around 1859, a group of Chinese prisoners of war were brought as far as the Nilgiris by the British to start growing tea in a major scale. A plaque still commemorates the "Jail Thottam"{prison garden} where the prisoners were housed. The tea estate where the Chinese prisoners planted tea is called as Thaishola tea estate. However, the credit for originally experimenting with tea in the Nilgiris goes to John Sullivan who was instrumental in setting up the first experimental farm in the Ketti valley. During his last years in the district (1835-1840) he repeatedly recommended tea cultivation and even sent good samples of cured tea to then Madras(now, Chennai). Nevertheless, it was only after 1865 that tea became commercially important for the Nilgiris. The collapse of coffee exports following the Great Depressions of 1930-33 quickened the pace expansion of tea in the Nilgiris.from about 3000 hectares in 1920 ,the area under tea jumped to nearly 9000 hectares by 1950. Along the side of big estates, a class of native farmers, particularly the Badagas, took up tea planting. In 1960s the Tamil Nadu state government set up the industrial tea cooperatives called INDCOSERVE which promoted cooperative tea factories to process the teas grown by small farmers. As the largest tea growing region in the South India, Nilgiris accounts for nearly one-tenth of the national production. The upper platue of the district, which is one of the largest of its kind in INDIA, covering Ooty, Coonoor, Kotagiri, Kundah and spread over an elevation of 1700 to 2200 meters above sea level. Experts say the Nilgiris teas have the right balance of strength, color and astringency to satisfy the need of tea drinking. Nilgiris teas produce bright and brisk tea liquors and they do not cloud. Nilgiris teas are often referred to as "The Fragrant One" or "The Champagne among teas".