Flood hits tea production

TT, Aug. 13: Planters have said floods caused by incessant rain in the past few days will affect tea cultivation and production in the Dooars and it will take years for some gardens to recover because of dolomite deposited by rivers.

"A number of rivers have swelled because of heavy rainfall in the past two-three days and inundated tea plantations in Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts. Almost all tea estates in the Dooars have recorded rainfall between 450mm and 550mm in the past three days," S. Guha Thakurta, the secretary of the Dooars Branch of Indian Tea Association, said.

"Workers' quarters have been submerged in many gardens, a large portion of tea bushes and roads are under water and in some cases, water has even entered factories."

He said tea production had been affected by the inundation

"The rate of absenteeism among labourers has gone up and so, less quantity of tealeaves has been plucked these days. Tea estates in Malbazar, Dhupguri, Kalchini and Kumargram blocks are the worst affected," said Thakurta.

The flood, he said, is because no dredging had been carried out in rivers for several years. "The level of riverbeds has increased because of deposit of slit and so, water spills out of banks every year," he added.

A senior tea planter in Jalpaiguri pointed out that a large amount of dolomite had been deposited in some tea gardens as most of the rivers which flow in the Dooars originate from Bhutan. "The dolomite deposition would make land unsuitable for tea cultivation. It would need fresh investments and at least a couple of years to make the soil usable for the cultivation," he said.

The industry has already suffered losses because of agitation on minimum wages.

"We have been facing problems since the Centre's demonetisation. This is the peak production season and heavy rainfall and flood have hard hit the industry. It would affect production and cash flow and can lead to problems in payment of wages, bonus and meeting other statutory obligations," said the official of the planters' association.

Meanwhile, there has been a slight improvement in flood situations of Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts as it rained less in the past 24 hours.

"Water levels have not increased in flood-affected areas due to less rainfall. In fact, water has started receding in some places. But as there is a forecast of heavy rain, we are keeping our fingers crossed," north Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh said.