Singbulli Tea Estate
Singbulli Tea Garden is located in Mirik valley and is spread over 22 km across nine undulating hills with altitudes ranging from 1200 ft MSI to 4100 ft MSI. Plated by British Tea Planters in 1924, the management of the tea garden was taken over by Jayshree Tea and Industries in 2003. The garden has four divisions namely Singbulli Division, Manja Division, Tingling Division and Murmah Division. The management has tried to maintain the ecological balance and maintaining the biodiversity on the estate.
Recalling a personal incident, Ex Goodricke and Darjeeling Tea Planter Mr Narendra Kumar Puri and his wife Kumkum Puri remember “In 1971 they had gone down to Siliguri for some work and were returning to Thurbo Tea Estate in the evening via the Mirik road, it was cold and foggy, the only thing we wanted as to reach home and be warm. Narendra was driving the classic Willis Jeep which was in full throttle, we were onwards to Thurbo, while navigating one of the turns in Singbulli Tea Estate, a Leopard jumped across the jeep. We were stunned, we stopped the jeep and saw the other side of the road, the Leopard had disappeared into the bushes. Being from the city (Delhi) I had never seen leopards, this was really frightening says Kumkum Puri.
Sighting leopards, elephants and rabbits in the tea gardens were common recalls, Narendra Puri. He fondly remembered “in the old days by the end of the month, the bachelors would be out of money, to simply put it “broke”. They would take their jeeps out and hunt for rabbits which were in abundance in the tea gardens at that time. A successful rabbit game meant a hot dinner of rice and steaming hot rabbit curry, usually one took the game to the senior assistant's bungalow as he would always offer a drink as a precursor to dinner and the game was always celebrated.
The tea garden has the following certifications:
Fair Trade certification,
DUTCH HACCP by SGS
Organic certification by IMO Control.
Singbulli Tea estate is world-famous for Clonal Tea, First Flush Tea, Second Flush Tea and Autumn Tea.