On the eastern side of Makaibari, there are thick woods – over 120 hectares of sub-tropical rain forests that are more than a thousand years old, and are home to the many animals and birds living there. The tea section next to it is called ‘Coffee Khety’ because my great grandfather had first planted coffee there in 1870 which my grandfather converted to tea; coffee then not being remunerative. It is funny to have some of the best teas from Makaibari named Coffee Khety (‘Khety’ in Nepali means field).

One day, my Plantation Assistant Dev and I were supervising fifty women, who were specially trained pluckers, picking superfine leaves for Muscatel Tea. Suddenly, we heard a strange whistling sound. All of us turned our heads and were hypnotised by a flock of Indian Pied Hornbills in flight over us. All of us watched in wonder as we beheld the truly majestic sight of parent hornbills teaching their newborn young to fly in formation.

The Indian Pied Hornbill is known as the king of birds – a position similar to that occupied by the tiger among mammals. The female hornbill stays walled up in the trunk of a dead tree, her beak poking out of the aperture, with her clutch of eggs for up to six weeks. The male hornbill feeds her during this time, and the great bird loses her magnificent plumage completely.