Told in the hills
Tea on the slope, forest below
When tea spread through the western Dooars after the first garden opened at Gazaldoba in 1874, planters looked for well-drained land, and the gentle rise around Chalsa, Matelli and Nagrakata suited them. Gardens were laid out on the slope while the wetter, flatter forest below was reserved for timber. That split is still visible from the Chalsa hilltop: orderly rows of tea bushes and shade trees on one side, dark sal forest on the other.
The workers who planted and plucked those gardens came largely from the Chota Nagpur plateau, recruited from Oraon, Munda, Santal and other communities, and their descendants live in the garden lines today. Chapramari became a protected sanctuary in 1998, partly because elephants were moving between Gorumara and the hills through this belt. The watchtower you sit on looks over a corridor shaped by both histories.
Pinned to the board
Did you know
Chapramari covers only about 960 hectares, yet elephants, gaur and rhinos all use it as part of a larger forest corridor.
Chapramari received wildlife sanctuary status in 1998; it lies about 7 km from both Chalsa and Nagrakata stations.
Within two years of the first Dooars tea garden opening in 1874, there were 13 gardens; by 1881 there were 55.
