Photograph of a Tea Plantation at Sath Tal from Album of views of “Naini Tal’ taken by Lawrie & Co in 1895. Sath Tal (Seven Lakes) is in the Kumaon hills in the Naini Tal district. During the Colonial period, the British found tea imported from China was too expensive to satisfy the large demand so they began tea plantations in India, halving the cost. The hill-stations had an ideal climate for tea-growing and the most famous areas were Assam and Darjeeling. Experiments to develop these particular varieties of tea were carried out at the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta. In the Kumaon area there were four plantations producing good quality tea.

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