Culture and history · Latpanchar
Through the quinine trees
Walk the roads through Latpanchar's government cinchona plantations and hear how the bark of these trees, planted from the 1860s at nearby Mungpoo, was turned into quinine for malaria.
Cinchona trees come from the Andes. In the nineteenth century the British smuggled seeds and seedlings out of South America and planted them in India to make quinine, then the only effective drug against malaria. One of the main plantations was set up at Mungpoo, a few valleys west of here, in the 1860s, with a factory to extract the drug.
The plantations spread across the surrounding slopes, including Latpanchar. Families came to work the trees, stripping bark, and their descendants still live in the plantation villages today. The plantations are run by the state's Directorate of Cinchona and Other Medicinal Plants.
Walk the plantation roads with someone from the village who can point out the trees and tell you how the work has changed. Stay on roads and do not cut or take bark.
Cost: Free
Questions people ask
Good to know
What is cinchona used for?
Cinchona bark contains quinine, the drug that was used for centuries to treat malaria. The British planted cinchona in the Darjeeling hills from the 1860s, centred on Mungpoo, to produce quinine in India. Today synthetic drugs have largely replaced it for malaria, though quinine still has some uses.
Who runs the cinchona plantations at Latpanchar?
They are run by the West Bengal government's Directorate of Cinchona and Other Medicinal Plants, which manages several plantations in the Darjeeling hills, including Mungpoo. Many families in the plantation villages have worked for the directorate for generations.
Can I visit the quinine factory?
The historic processing factory is at Mungpoo, a separate place in the Darjeeling land, not at Latpanchar. Visitor access to the factory is not regular; ask locally. At Latpanchar you can walk through the plantations themselves on public roads.
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