tea, harvest, agriculture
Local women harvesting budding tea leaves on one of the largest tea plantations in India, KDHP (Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Ltd.) with 20,000 acres planted in black tea, out of a total of 57,000 acres of land (approx 250 sq km) in the mountains of Kerala, India. The area was first developed in 1887 by Colonel Welsley of the British East India Company, and was the supplier of tea to Buckingham Palace as recently as the 1950's. It is now 33% owned by the Tata Group, and the rest by an employee stock ownership Program. The plantation produced 25 million kg of dry tea annually, on elevations from 4,500 to 7,000 ft. They have 16 different processing factories specializing in various kinds of tea (black, organic black, oolong, green) but their primary product is black tea, some of which is marketed under their own Ripple brand.
