No buyers for Kangra tea

Our Correspondent

Palampur, May 24

Despite bumper tea crop in the Kangra valley this year, there are no buyers in the national and international market. Crises in the tea industry have forced hundreds of tea growers in the Kangra valley to abandon their tea gardens.

Earlier, co-operative tea factories at Bir and Baijnath were buying the produce. These factories have now either been closed or taken over by private parties, therefore, tea leaves from 1,000 acres of tea gardens have not been plucked.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that over 5,000 persons have been rendered jobless in the last five years because of closure of tea factories at Baijnath and Bir.

Many growers in the valley are yet to receive the payment of their produce supplied to co-operative factories.

In the absence of pruning and cutting of bushes, many small tea gardens have been covered with thick elephant grass. Though, the government is well conversant with the situation, but none has come forward for the rescue of tea growers.

The tea growers of the valley blame the successive governments which adopted anti-tea grower policies and discontinued various incentives being given to the growers by the government.

Earlier, the marketing and development of the tea industries were being looked after by the state Industries Department and the tea growers were satisfied with the functioning of the department.

The BJP government in its major policy decision attached the tea cultivation with the Agricultural Department. The tea growers asserted that it was a blunder on the part of the government.

The Agriculture Department failed to deliver the goods and neglected the development and marketing of tea in the region. There was no qualified staff in the department to handle the affairs.

In the absence of demand for green tea leaves, tea growers are left with no alternative, except to stop tea cultivation. The cultivation of tea in the valley has also been replaced with different quality of grasses, which have proved more profitable to the growers.

Many tea lands have turned into concrete jungles. The cost of tea production is much higher in India as compared to the African countries.