First commercial tea plantation opens at Mulnicherra Estate, Sylhet
- When
- 1857
- Where
- Mulnicherra Estate
- Episodes
- 1
Commercial tea cultivation began in 1857 at the Mulnicherra Estate in Sylhet, marking the first commercial plantation in British India. This development occurred during East India Company rule, not the later British Raj. The estate established a foundation for tea production in the region, which had seen earlier experimental production in 1849.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. Sylhet, situated on the Surma River, was under East India Company administration in the mid-19th century. The region's tea industry originated with Company-initiated trade in the hills. Although Sylhet later became part of Colonial Assam in 1874, the 1857 plantation occurred while it was part of the Bengal Presidency, establishing the area as a center for cultivation in Eastern Bengal.
Establishment of the Estate. The Mulnicherra Estate, also known as Malnichhera Tea Garden, is recognized as the first established tea garden in the subcontinent. Commercial cultivation specifically began in 1857, following earlier production efforts in 1849. This estate remains the largest tea garden in Bangladesh, serving as the historical anchor for the region's commercial tea industry.
People involved
- East India Company · Initiated tea trade in Sylhet hills
Sources
- Tea production in Bangladesh Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-23
- Malnicherra Tea Estate Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-15
- Sylhet Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.