The longer a tea estate remains closed, the quicker it loses value. If tea bushes are not pruned and given adequate fertiliser, its leaves are no longer marketable. And Ramjhora estate, it appears, had been neglected even before the owners abandoned it.
At flourishing estates, tea bushes are re-planted after they cross 35 to 40 years, and the 'vacancies' (gaps caused by dead bushes) are filled up. "There was no maintenance of the garden by the management. Seventy per cent of the plants here are old," says Sharma. Locals say the bushes at Ramjhora are now 100 years old.
The giant shed of the tea factory is now just a shell, increasingly prey to rust.
Kamaljit Singh, manager at the 2,000-acre-Beech Estate in eastern Jalpaiguri district, who has 32 years of experience and a reputation as a skilful manager in this area, feels Ramjhora is a case of neglect on both sides, where both workers and management were to blame.
"There are two reasons why tea estates close: Lack of investment, and militant labour. Ramjhora has had a long problem of militant labour; the workers were arrogant, and took such an adamant stand that the owners were not able to do anything. They kept sinking money in it, and after a time they realised it was beyond retrieval. This happened over a long period of time, and the estate changed owners three times as a result. Both the labour and the management were at fault."
Singh says even difficult labour can be brought in line with the sort of tough policy successive owners of Ramjhora could not implement. "There was a lot of militancy at one of the Duncan Goenka estates. They instituted disciplinary action through short term closures. But they held on."
Once the situation reaches an impasse, as it has at Ramjhora, labour pays a huge price. "Yes, the workers suffer, and the owner loses his property," says Singh. "The workers have no choice but to hang on. They cannot get work elsewhere, not even the younger ones."
Image: Top left : A Dooars tea estate near India's border with Bhutan. Bottom right : Ramjhora Estate's overgrown tea plants.
Also read: World's 11 best metro rail systems
Advertisement
