Pioneer Heel, where Bangladesh’s tea cultivation began 182 years ago

It was the year 1840 when Bangladesh’s first tea cultivation started experimentally in the Pioneer Heel, Lalkhan Bazar and Tiger Pass areas.

The Pioneer Tea Garden existed for nearly 35 years.

Commercial production began later in Sylhet’s Malnichhara in 1857, three years after experimental production there. In 2021, Bangladesh's tea industry brewed up 96.5m kg of one of the world’s top commodities.

During the British rule of the Indian sub-continent, tea cultivation was launched in Assam in the early 19th century.

In Chattogram, a few plants were brought from China and some plants of Chinese origin developed in the Calcutta Botanical Garden, according to the Eastern Bengal District Gazetteers, published in 1908.

Mohammad Ruhul Amin, secretary to Bangladesh Tea Board, said Chattogram’s collector  ‘Scones’ initiated the Pioneer Tea Garden. It took three years to grow tea.

Now the Chattogram Club is situated in the area, where the garden’s manager lived, said Md Nader Khan, president of the club. Tea had been produced in the garden until the club was established in 1878.

Currently Chattogram and Rangamati districts have 23 tea gardens under Chattogram Valley, which contributed 9.5 million tonnes to the total 96.3 million tea produced last year.