Happy Valley Tea Estate

Happy Valley Tea Estate is a tea garden in Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The estate was established in 1854. David Wilson, an Englishman, had named the garden Wilson Tea Estate and by 1860 had started cultivation of tea. In 1903, the estate was taken over by an Indian, Tarapada Banerjee, an aristocrat from Hooghly. In 1929, Banerjee bought the Windsor Tea Estate nearby, and merged the two estates under the name of Happy Valley Tea Estate. G.C. Banerjee was the next owner of Happy Valley Tea Estate. He with his wife Annapurna Devi and three daughters (Nonimukhi, Monmaya and Savitri) lived there for some time. Annapurna Devi was related to the Ganguly family of Khandwa; her maternal uncle was Kunjalal Bihari, father of the famous cine Gangulys.

The bushes in the garden are very old — the minimum age is 80 years, and some are 150 years old. Very few re-plantation has been done in the recent past. This tea estate is the closest tea estate to Darjeeling town, and tourists often visit the garden.

The tea produced by Happy Valley is sold by Harrods in UK and Mariage Freres in France.

References

• Chattopadhyay S.S. The valley of resilience. Frontline. Volume 20– Issue 25, December 06–19, 2003.