Planter who brought rubber to India remembered

ERJ staff report (LMH)

Thiruvananthapturam, India - The Indian Rubber Board is to set up a memorial for Irish planter JJ Murphy, who introduced and popularised commercial rubber cultivation in India by setting up the first plantation, reports India's The Statesman.

The memorial will be erected at a church cemetery near Mundakkayam in the Kottayum area where Murphy was buried in 1957.

According to historians, John joseph Murphy came to India at a young age and set up the country's first commercial rubber plantation at Thattekkad in Kerala.

Murphy realised the immense potential of the lands in care less rubber cultivation at a time when it had not been cultivated commercially anywhere in the country. The demand from rubber shot up during the Second World War period, which prompted both Western and local cultivators to turn to Kerala, which became India's largest producer of natural rubber, the paper reports.

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Article from The Statesman