In 1877 Kerala Varma who was the Raja of Poonjar, sold 227 sq. miles of Kannan Devan Hills to a British planter named John Daniel Munroe. This gave birth to the Kannan Devan Hill Produce Company. Kannan Thevan is an Adivasi who showed the hills to the Planters and today Kannan Devan Hills is internationally known to the world. With out any communication the tract was largely unexplored and covered with thick forests. In 1878 the Maharaja of Travancore confirmed the sale. J.D Munroe formed the North Travancore Land Planting and Agricultural Society. The members of the society developed their own estates in various parts of the High Ranges. A.W Turnor at Devikulam area undertook the first cultivation in 1877.

The innovators tried many crops such as Coffee, Cinchona, Sisal and Cardamom, before discovering tea, which is the best-suited crop for this area. A.H Sharp at Parvathi first planted tea by clearing 50 acres on a dense forest. This place has now become Seven Mallay Estate. In 1895 Finlay Muir & Company now known as James Finlay and Company limited purchased that area. The Kannan Devan Hills Produce Company Limited and the Anglo-American Direct Tea Trading Company Ltd. owned 28 estates in these areas. Other British owned the remaining 7 estates. No Indian Companies belong to this group.

The pace of development was accelerated with the entry of large business houses possessing capital and technical skill. Experienced tea planters were brought from Ceylon and large areas were planted with tea. Roads were opened as well as transport was organized, houses and factories built and production rose rapidly in the succeeding years. Later M/s Tata Finlay Ltd., a company incorporated in India, purchased the Tea Estates from them and is running them now, under the name M/s Tata Finlay Ltd. Their operation is mainly confined to Munnar - Devikulam area.

After the implementation of the Land Reforms Act, about 70,000 acres of Kannan Devan Hills Village were preserved from the Company. These lands were taken as excess land and that too without giving any compensation. It is also an exposed fact, which should not be forgotten that the deforestation process started in the High Ranges with the advent of Plantation industry by the end of 19th century. The evergreen forests, which existed earlier, were totally destroyed in the area and substituted with the present greenish carpeting of tealeaves.