By Aravinda Anantharaman | Managing Editor

India Tea News for the week ending Feb 16, 2024

Assam’s Kaziranga Park Offers Tea Tourism Option

Kaziranga National Park in Assam is set to offer visitors an immersive tea experience to guests. The Park saw 326,000 visitors in 2023 and is a popular destination in the northeast, especially as home to the largest one-horned rhinoceros population. The park is surrounded by tea gardens and communities and has been steadily adding more activities, such as safaris and cycling, to its offerings. With this new addition, they could well give tea a much-needed boost.

See: Travel for Tea (Tea Journey Magazine)

Save Small Tea Growers Forum Seeks Minimum Floor Price

In the Nilgiris, the Save Small Tea Growers forum representing 65,000 small grower families has asked for the minimum price of green leaf to be set to Rs 35/ kilo. Current prices hover at Rs 15/ kilo, with the cost of production at about Rs 25. Until the price is fixed, the forum has asked the government to create a corpus to ensure the farmers are paid a fair price.

North Bengal Tea Worker Allegedly Dies of Starvation

Down to Earth magazine reported that 58-year-old Dhani Oroan, who worked at Madhu Tea Garden, Alipurdar, passed away on 2nd February 2024. A fact-finding team visited his home the next day. As per their report, Oroan’s wife, whom they met, showed signs of extreme starvation. Neighbors confirmed that Dhani also had been malnourished. The report offers details of Oroan’s wife’s height, weight, and BMI, which are well below normal. Madhu Tea Garden was closed for seven years and reopened in December 2023. In this period, the Oroans had no access to supplies via the Public Distribution System because their papers needed to be digitized, and various government documents needed to be linked in the backend. The couple depended on neighbors for a meal a day. Oroan died of a seizure. He could not avail medical help as the garden hospital was not functional, and no one around could afford to transport him to the nearest hospital.

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  Nilgiris Small Farmers Seek Government Corpus | Assam’s Kaziranga Park Offers Tea Tourism Option | North Bengal Tea Worker Allegedly Starves to Death | Episode 155 | 16 Feb 2024