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Insurgents push Tripura tea industry to the brink

Syed Zarir Hussain in Fatikcherra (Tripura)

Panic has gripped the fledgling tea industry in the northeastern state of Tripura where tribal separatists have been killing and kidnapping planters as part of a stepped-up extortion drive.

"Panic and fear haunts planters across Tripura with armed militants openly roaming in the gardens and serving extortion notices ranging from anything between Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 million," said P K Sarkar, secretary general of the Tripura chapter of the Tea Association of India.

Two of the five tea executives abducted in broad daylight by heavily armed rebels from north Tripura in June are still being held hostage. "Six gardens have already closed down with the owners buckling under pressure from the rebels while many more estates are on the verge of closure with the threat perception increasing by the day," Sarkar said at the Fatikcherra garden, 20 km east of Tripura's capital Agartala.

At least 13 planters have been killed and more than 30 executives kidnapped for ransom since 1994. Tea industry sources unofficially admit to having coughed up an estimated Rs 30 million as ransom to secure the release of abducted executives in the past decade.

More than 10,000 lives have been lost to insurgency in Tripura during the past decade.

Tripura's 58 big plantations produce about 6,500 tonnes of tea out of India's total production of 815,000 tonnes annually.

The state's two most powerful rebel groups, the National Liberation Front of Tripura and the All Tripura Tiger Force, both fighting for independent tribal homelands, have long been involved in a lucrative extortion racket targeting the tea industry.

The increasing fear has led to an exodus of young planters and executives from the gardens. "There is no security whatsoever and despite repeated requests the local government has failed to provide protection to the vulnerable gardens," Sarkar said.

"More than a dozen garden managers have fled out of fear, leaving the estates to be run by junior staff," he added.

Planters say the prevailing security situation is breaking their families.

"There is no personal life, no entertainment and you cannot even have a good night's sleep with fear all over the place. You cannot keep your family in the garden as one never knows when we need to run for our lives," Nisith Kumar Chatterjee, manager of the Fatikcherra tea estate, said.

"Production and quality has been adversely hit in most gardens with the managers unable to supervise work in interior sections for fear of being kidnapped," he added.

Last year, insurgents had kidnapped up to 600 people, including planters, for ransom from various parts of Tripura. At least 40 of them were killed in captivity. Tea is the only viable industry in insurgency-ravaged Tripura, bordering Bangladesh.

"We hear of extortion notices being served on planters, but so far we have not received any formal complaints. Maybe the gardens do some arrangement to buy peace with the militants," Tripura police chief B L Vohra said.

Vohra said the 856-kilometer-long porous border that Tripura shares with Bangladesh has been a major "stumbling block" in containing insurgency.

"Gardens situated on the borders are more vulnerable to militant attacks as the border is unfenced and there is paucity of security forces to provide to each and every plantation," he said.

Indo-Asian News Service

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