In Bengal's tea belt, climate and politics boil over

As BJP, TMC fight for dominance, tea gardens hope for a change in the weather and, perhaps, their fortunes

- ISHITA AYAN DUTT

Standing in the middle of a tea plantation in Dooars, Santosh Barman gazes at the sky, trying to figure out if rain clouds are gathering. Hundreds of tea gardens stretching from the plains of Dooars-Terai to the hills of Darjeeling are reeling from insufficient rains. A good splash or two for the parched gardens would be nothing short of manna from heaven.

Barman makes a living from supplying bigha or daily wage workers to tea gardens during the peak plucking months. In a good year, he provides 500-550 workers a day.

This season, so far, he has struggled to get past 150. Pointing to the tea bush, he says, there is hardly anything to pluck in most gardens.

"Some are closed." Patchy rainfall until March has disrupted the ecosystem around the colonial plantations steeped in history. And it's not just this season or the last. Climate change adversities over the past few years have resulted in losses for everyone-from the contractor to the producer. Cut to the estate.

"The tea industry is sinking; it's like every year is worse than the previous; the cost is up, prices are stagnant, and the crop is down," says a veteran in the industry with more than four decades of experience as a plantation manager, on condition of anonymity.

The March crop in Dooars is lower by 30 per cent compared to last year. But there have been intermittent rains in some areas from the end of March. "We expect the second fortnight of April to be better," says Sam Varghese, chief advisory officer, Tea Research Association (Dooars).

But the bhanji period is getting extended, which will impact quality, he adds. Bhanji is the resting or dormant period between flushes.

Poll time, teatime