Darjeeling: A fire broke out at Moonda Kotee tea estate in the wee hours of Saturday. The office of the tea garden was totally gutted thereby destroying all documents, records and the computers of the garden. There has been no report of any injury or loss of life.
The garden is situated around 4 km below Sonada in the Kurseong sub division of the Darjeeling district. The fire broke out around 12:30am on Saturday.
"Tea garden workers and local residents tried to douse the fire. We even tried to contact the fire brigade but failed to do so. Soon, the office was razed to the ground," stated Puran Rai, assistant manager of the tea estate.
Incidentally, there had been a fire in the factory of the garden in 2004, in which the factory was gutted.
The garden is owned by Darjeeling Organic Tea Estate Pvt Ltd. They have a worker strength of 949. 298. Seventy-eight hectares of land is under tea cultivation in the garden.