Incessant rainfall in the last couple of days has affected almost all tea plantations in Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts, officials of the Indian Tea Association said today. Major rivers and its tributaries and channels passing through the tea plantations are in spate, affecting the plantations, they said. It is learnt that tea plantation areas received a minimum of 250.4 mm rainfall and that a tlarge portion of the tea-bearing land was under water, while roads within the estates were also inundated and damaged.
Owing to the rainfall, less quantity of green leaf is being plucked, while work in some tea plantations did not take place because of absenteeism. Manufacturing of tea was also hit due to grid failure, which has affected adversely the quality of tea production, the officials said. Citing examples, the secretary of the Dooars branch of the Indian Tea Association (DBITA) said that the Choonabhutti Tea Estate was severely hit because of an overflowing channel named Hatti Nallah, which carries huge volume of water from the Bhutan hills and devastates areas downstream.
DBITA officials apprehend the channel may affect other plantations like New Dooars, Ambari and Barnahat town via the Debpara Tea Estate if its course-changing trend continues.
Apart from that, some gardens like Telepara, Palashbari, Debpara, Gairkata, Phaskowa, Mechpara, Beech and Rahimabad tea estates were also affected.
The Good-luck division of the Rahimabad TE has been completely cut off from the main garden, for which garden vehicles have to ply up and down at least 50 km extra for ferrying green leaf, sources said.
“If the present condition prevails, the prospects of production of tea in the estates of the district will face a severe setback during the coming months, which will have an impact on the overall annual production also,” DBITA secretary Sumanto Guho Thakurta said.