Zurantee Tea Garden (also spelled Juranti) is a village in the Matiali CD block in the

Malbazar subdivision Malbazar subdivision is an administrative division of the Jalpaiguri district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Geography Subdivisions Jalpaiguri district is divided into the following administrative subdivisions: Administrative units Mal ...

of the

Jalpaiguri district Jalpaiguri district () is a district of the Indian state of West Bengal. The district was established in 1869 during British Raj. The headquarters of the district are in the city of Jalpaiguri, which is also the divisional headquarters of No ...

in the state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Geography

Location

Zurantee Tea Garden is located at .

Area overview

Gorumara National Park Gorumara National Park (Pron: ˌgɔ:rʊˈmɑ:rə; ''Gorumara Jatio Uddan'') is a National Park in northern West Bengal, India. Located in the Dooars region of the Himalayan foothills, it is a medium-sized park with grasslands and forests. Goruma ...

has overtaken traditionally popular

Jaldapara National Park Jaldapara National Park (Pron: ˌʤʌldəˈpɑ:rə) is a national park situated at the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas in Alipurduar, Alipurduar District of northern West Bengal, India, and on the banks of the Torsa River. Jaldapara is si ...

in footfall and

Malbazar Malbazar, also known as Mal, is a town and a municipality in Jalpaiguri district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Malbazar subdivision. It lies about 65 km from Jalpaiguri and 55 km from Siliguri. It li ...

has emerged as one of the most important towns in the

Dooars The Dooars or Duars ( as, দুৱাৰ, duar, rkt, দুৱাৰ, duar, bn, দুয়ার, duyar) () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the ...

. Malbazar subdivision is presented in the map alongside. It is a predominantly rural area with 88.62% of the population living in rural areas and 11.32% living in the urban areas. Tea gardens in the

and

Terai The Terai or Tarai is a lowland region in northern India and southern Nepal that lies south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Sivalik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This lowland belt is characterised by tall grasslands, scr ...

regions produce 226 million kg or over a quarter of India's total tea crop. Some tea gardens were identified in the 2011 census as

census town In India and some other countries, a census town is designated as a town that satisfies certain characteristics. India In India, a census town is one which is not statutorily notified and administered as a town, but nevertheless whose population ...

s or villages. Such places are marked in the map as CT (census town) or R (rural/ urban centre). Specific tea estate pages are marked TE. Note: The map alongside presents some of the notable locations in the subdivision. All places marked in the map are linked in the larger full screen map.

Demographics

As per the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Juranti Tea Garden had a total population of 5,402. There were 2,640 (49%) males and 2,762 (51%) females. There were 600 persons in the age range of 0 to 6 years. The total number of literate people in Juranti was 3,020 (62.89% of the population over 6 years).

Tourism

Zurantee Tea Garden in the central

is 3 hours drive from

Bagdogra airport Bagdogra Airport is a customs airport located in the western part of Siliguri, in Bagdogra in northern West Bengal, India. It is operated as a civil enclave at AFS Bagdogra of the Indian Air Force. It is the gateway airport to the hill station ...

, via Chalsa. “Situated in a picturesque landscape with low hills which are adorned with tea bushes, the Zurrantee Tea Garden” has access to other tourist destinations such as

Murti In the Hindu tradition, a ''murti'' ( sa, मूर्ति, mūrti, ) is a devotional image such as a statue, or "idol" (a common and non-pejorative term in Indian English), of a deity or saint. In Hindu temples, it is a symbolic icon. Thus ...

, Bindu, Jhaldhaka Hydel Project,

Samsing Samsing is a small hill village and tourist spot in the Matiali (community development block), Malbazar subdivision of Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal situated at an elevation of 3000 ft in the foothills in between Jalpaiguri and Darjeel ...

, or for moving on to

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...

Gangtok Gangtok is a city, municipality, the capital and the largest populated place of the Indian state of Sikkim. It is also the headquarters of the East Sikkim district, Gangtok District. Gangtok is in the eastern Himalayas, Himalayan range, at an e ...

. It has a magnificent British bungalow.

Tea gardens in the Dooars

Tea gardens in the

produce around 325 million kg of tea, around a quarter of the total Indian production of 1,250 million kg. Labour cost is about 60 per cent of the cost of production of tea. As cost of labour rises, tea garden operations are becoming increasingly unviable. Between 2002 and 2007, 17 tea gardens shut down in the Dooars and the renowned Goenka Duncans group recently shut down 7 tea gardens. The latter alone lead to the loss of employment for around 25,000 workers. At least 1,200 deaths have been reported in the area.

References

{{Jalpaiguri district Villages in Jalpaiguri district