has overtaken traditionally popular Jaldapara National Park in footfall and Malbazar has emerged as one of the most important towns in the Dooars. 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 Dooars and Terai 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 towns or villages. Such places are marked in the map as CT or R. 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, Bagrakot Tea Garden had a total population of 9,971. There were 4,907 males and 5,064 females. There were 895 persons in the age range of 0 to 6 years. The total number of literate people in Bagrakot Tea Garden was 6,878.
Economy
Bagrakote Tea Garden was established in 1876 and was shut down in 2015. The tea plantation is now a jungle. One of the reasons for the adverse situation in the tea gardens is that India is losing out in the international market to other countries, such as Kenya, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and even Bangladesh, who have lower cost of production. Within the country tea prices have been stagnant, while costs have risen by 60 per cent in five years prior to 2015. Bagrakot and 13 other tea gardens belonging to the Goenka Duncan group have virtually been closed down or “abandoned” as some say. There are 8 other gardens, which are closed for years. There are 154 gardens in the Dooars out of 283 tea gardens in north Bengal that employ 3.5 lakh workers. Bagracote Tea Estate has 489.95 hectares of mature tea and 1.32 hectares of young tea. In 1998-99, it produced 1.416 million kg of tea.
Tourism
Bagrakote is a village, 4 km from Odlabari, surrounded by forests and tea gardens, with an exquisite view of the Himalayan mountains. Those who are lucky, particularly on a winter morning, can also have a glimpse of Kangchenjunga. It has trekking routes, particularly the one to Loleygaon. This off-beat destination has started attracting tourists.
