Rain blow to Dooars tea gardens

June 28.TT: Excessive rain and overflowing rivers have affected the tea gardens in the Dooars with planters fearing production might come down by 50 per cent if the weather stays the same for a few more days.

“The situation is grim across Dooars. In the beginning of the season, during March and April, there was less rainfall but this month, particularly during in the last four-five days, it has rained round-the-clock, affecting tea plantations across the region,” said Prabir Bhattacharjee, the secretary of the Dooars Branch of the Indian Tea Association, today.

“With no sunlight, new leaves and buds are not sprouting,” he said.

According to sources in the India Meteorological Department, Dooars gets 150-160mm of rain in a week on an average at this time of the year. This time, however, the region has got 200-250mm rain in the past three-four days.

Alipurduar and its adjoining areas have recorded 350-400mm of rainfall in the past three-four days.

There are 160-odd gardens in the Dooars and they produce around 170million kg of tea a year.

“For good quality and quantity of tea leaves, we need sunshine along with rain at this time of the year. We have had only five sunny days this month and it has affected the growth of the bushes,” said Rajat Deb, the chairman of the Dooars branch of the Indian Tea Planters’ Association.

Senior officials from the industry said this season the gardens might end up producing around 50 per cent less than the usual output.

“Usually, we produce around 60,000kg of tea during these months. We doubt if we can even manufacture 30,000kg this month. It means a loss of several lakhs of rupees,” said Anil Kumar Biswas, the manager of the Carron Tea Estate.

“Cloudy weather is known to be conducive for Helopeltis (tea mosquito bug). It has already attacked the bushes. We are not spraying pesticides as it will get washed away in the rain. It seems each garden will experience a loss of 25 to 30 per cent in terms of production compared to the figures in June 2011. Some gardens can face a loss of up to 50 per cent if the weather continues to be like this,” Deb added.

Several gardens are inundated after the heavy spell in the past few days.

“At least 10-15 Dooars gardens have the problem of inundation as the rivers near them are overflowing. A complete assessment of the flood-affected areas is yet to be made,” said Deb.

According to him, the situation is precarious in the Sankosh tea estate where water from the swollen Sankosh has entered. “The situation is similar in central Dooars where gardens like Mechpara, Chuapara and Rheabari have reported inundation,” Bhattacharjee said.

Management of several gardens have said absenteeism and incidents of sickness among workers has increased by around 30 per cent because of the weather.

Planters are also worried about the bad condition of NH31D through which they dispatch tea to the Siliguri auction centre and other parts of the country.

“The highway is in a bad shape and now with the rains, the condition has worsened. We are facing inconvenience in dispatching tea. Some labour quarters have been inundated,” said a planter from the Dooars.

Cooch Behar flood

Around 1.5 lakh people have been affected in Tufanganj subdivision of Cooch Behar because of flood, the subdivisional administration said today.

“Because of the flood 332 houses have been totally destroyed while 1,454 others have suffered partial damages. Sixty one villages have been affected. We have opened 79 flood shelters in the subdivision,” Palden Sherpa, the SDO of Tufanganj, said.