Monsoon tea harvest suffers owing to labour shortage in North Bengal

Alipurduar: After the first and second flushes (harvests) of tea were badly affected due to the heat wave, the monsoon flush, which produces the highest quantity of tea, is now going to be affected due to a shortage of temporary labourers.

Although the production of the first-flush and second-flush teas has taken a beating, this time the production of monsoon flush tea leaves is expected to be as anticipated.

However, the tea garden authorities are concerned that there may be a shortage of workers in the gardens that will cause a dent in harvesting the tea.

Currently, there are about 400,000 permanent workers in more than 300 tea gardens in North Bengal. Around 200,000 temporary workers also aid in various important tasks in the tea gardens of North Bengal.

Due to the hot weather from February to June, the production of leaves was reduced. As a result, most of the tea plantations in North Bengal were unable to provide work to the permanent workers for six days a week. In some cases, many tea estates were only able to offer work to their permanent workers for three days a week. Naturally, there was no question of employing temporary workers.

Due to the continuous shortage of work in the plantations, many temporary workers have migrated to other states in search of employment.

After June 15, the harvesting of monsoon flush leaves will continue until September. The quantity of these leaves is very high. In this situation, temporary workers are required along with permanent workers to pluck the leaves. If the temporary workers do not return from other states then production in many gardens will suffer.

Chinmay Dhar, Chairman of the North Bengal Tea Association of India, said: “We have suffered terrible losses in the last six months. Despite the setbacks with the first two flushes, we were fully optimistic about the monsoon flush. But now we are rethinking. The lack of temporary workers is bound to affect the production of the monsoon flush. The shortage of temporary workers will definitely impact many tea plantations. Without proper plucking, the production of tea leaves could be severely affected. We are very concerned about this.”