From the archive record
Tractor is loaded with raw tea leaf bags and workers before loading weighing the bags. Over the years several tea gardens in Darjeeling have closed down or have been taken over by the other tea estates. Once there were well over 100 tea estates. Currently there are 87 operational tea gardens in Darjeeling district covering an aggregated area of about 19,000 hectares (i.e. 46,950 acres) under tea plantation. The tea gardens in Darjeeling presently employ about 52,000 permanent workers (including both garden and factory workers). Most of the garden workers are women and almost all employees are Nepalese. The tea estates additionally employ around 15,000 contract workers in the gardens during the tea plucking season (i.e. between March to November). It is estimated that over 200,000 family m