A major tea growing area, Coonoor is also a major auction centre besides Coimbatore and Cochin. Tiger Hill Tea (made and marketed by the government owned TANTEA), an orthodox tea made from two leaves and a bud, is exported directly to the USA, Canada, UK and Switzerland, Not much tea is grown in Ooty, as the leaves turn black in the winter cold. Instead, a variety of vegetables are grown

The first tea plantation in the area, Rob Roy, was started in 1840 in Aravenu, a Badaga village about 3 km from Kotagiri. It still functions in the original buildings, processing tea leaves from various estates into CTC for 100% export to the CIS and Dubai. CTC is cut, tear, and curl. A number of leaves of the tea plant are cut, tanned, chopped, and then fermented, dried and graded, classified according to the size of the dust from very fine to tiny balls

But the history of tea goes back to 1833 when Assistant Surgeon A.T. Chrisitie noticed plenty of camellias in Coonoor which are of the same botanical family as tea. (The camellia is a bushy plant or small tree, which has rose like pink and white heavenly smelling flowers). So her ordered some tea plants from China. By October 1838, they were 4 ft. high, full of flowers, fruit and healthy young leaves. Thus began the tea industry, now the lifeblood of Coonoor. Tea leaves can be picked from the third year of planting, at one- week intervals from March to May, and at 14 day intervals in other months. So plucking goes on throughout the year

The largest tea growing area in south India, sixth in the whole of India, tea occupies more than 50% of the cultivated 60,000 hectares in the Nilgiris. The silver oak tree, a small tree without many branches, is mostly grown as the shade tree for the tea plants. The trees keep the temperature even and maintain humidity, and in the coffee plantations reduce leaf growth, thus increasing the yield of berries. You can see how the green leaf from the tea bush turns into the black leaf or dust we use at home, in any one of several tea estates

The 1964 Shastri- Sirimavo Agreement brough Tamil repatriates from Sri Lanka to the area. Since the Nilgiris was similar to the place they had left behing, more and more of them began to settle down here. The largest group of plantation labour, they are smart, good looking, and speak Tamil with a distinct accent. 2400 families came at first, and though a maximum of 5860 families were to be repatriated to the Nilgiris, more than 15,000 families with nearly one lakh persons on natural resources making it difficult to preserve the natural beauty of the place while retaining its ecological balance

The United Planters Association of Southern India, better known by its acronym UPASI is in Glenview. It was a hotel where distinguished people like Lady Canning had stayed. UPASI represents planters’ interests in national and international for a and has as its members planters’ associations, companies, firms and persons connected with and interested in planting

Tea, the cup that cheers