SILCHAR : Tripura was a princely state during the British-raj and gateway to Shillong and Calcutta through Sylhet and Commilla, now in Bangladesh. Tripura was annexed to India in 1949. During the pre-independent days, the Maharaja of Tripura did not permit the Britishers to open tea gardens in Tripura. JC Das, a prominent personality in the tea industry, said most of the tea gardens in Tripura were opened by the land lords of undivided Bengal and ICS officers of Bengal as well as professors of Murari Chand College, Sylhet.