Hemendra Prasad Barooah, the Noted Assam Tea Planter Passed Away at 87

Hemendra Prasad Barooah, the noted Assam tea planter passed away on 31 July 2013 in Bangkok. He was 87 years of age. He is survived by two daughters. He was predeceased by his wife and son earlier. He died due to cardiac arrest.

Life Sketch of Hemendra Prasad Barooah

• Hemendra Prasad Barooah was born on 1 April 1926.
• He did his MBA from the Harvard University, US.
• He was also a Padmashree awardee.
• He was the owner of B&A Limited, Assam Tea Brokers Private Limited, B&A Multiwall Packaging, Heritage North East Pvt Ltd and Kaziranga Golf Club Limited. The flagship company B&A Limited, at presents, owns nine tea gardens that have an average production of 57 lakh kg of tea. This group is also the owner of B&A Multiwall Packaging, Assam Tea Brokers Private Limited, Kaziranga Golf Club Limited as well as Heritage North East Pvt Ltd.
• His ancestral home, located at Jalukonibari, 15km from Jorhat, was opened to the tourists in the year 2000. This was called Thengal Manor.
• Apart from this, two other colonial era managers’ bungalows of his gardens in the district at Gotonga and Sangsua, were opened to the tourists.
• It is important to note that he was the single support of the veteran tea garden owners during the peak of ULFA insurgency in Assam.
• Hemendra Prasad Barooahwas had also remained the President of Bengal Club in Calcutta.
• He was also the head of Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry during 80s.
• He was also the first Assamese tea entrepreneur to bring out an IPO.
• He was the renowned philanthropist as well as the collector of contemporary Indian art, especially those of M.F. Hussain. During his lifetime, he collected 600 works of contemporary art, which included both Indian and European.
• Wasbir Hussain wrote his biography—Life and Times: Story of an Assamese Tea Baron.