Storm in a tea cup Premium

Questions over labour, profitability and environmental concerns dictate thefuture of TANTEA, and those who depend on the tea estates for a living are facing an uncertain future too

Ganesh, a 53-year-old estate worker at the government-run Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation (TANTEA) estate in Cherangode, in The Nilgiris district, is a worried man. Recent reports in the media and statements from various political parties on the announcement that the Tamil Nadu government was planning to close down TANTEA estates in the Nilgiris and Valparai, have made him extremely nervous that he could soon be deprived of a livelihood. 

The son of Sri Lankan repatriates, Mr. Ganesh stated that workers had been aware that TANTEA was haemorrhaging losses for quite a few years now. “Though many of us had been aware that steps might be taken to close down some of the estates, many workers are worried that they may lose employment in the coming years,” he said. A fall in the price of tea leaves, coupled with negative human-elephant interactions in the regions where the TANTEA estates are located, has, for many years, led to questions about the viability of maintaining these estates. 

Since 2012, TANTEA, which had leased land from the T.N. Forest Department to set up the estates has returned around 4,059 hectares back to the Forest Department, said officials. Production still continues in the remaining land of around 2,400 acres.

Managing Director of TANTEA (in-charge), and Conservator of Forests (Nilgiris), D. Venkatesh, said that TANTEA had been recording losses over the last 10 years, and that the government had only returned “unproductive” estate areas, where there was no cultivation happening, back to the Forest Department. “TANTEA continues to function in productive areas and will continue to do so in future too,” said Mr. Venkatesh, who added that funds had been allocated for fertilisers and modernisation of factories in Pandiyar, Cherangode and Quinshola in The Nilgiris. 

According to government records, TANTEA provided livelihoods for 4,082 people who returned to India as part of the Sirimavo-Shastri Pact, signed between the Sri Lankan and Indian Prime Ministers of the time, Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Lal Bahadur Shastri, in 1964 to repatriate people of Indian origin from Sri Lanka who were recruited by the British to work in tea, coffee and coconut plantations. The government states that currently, a total of 3,569 permanent workers and 220 temporary workers are employed at its factories and estates. 

After the passing of the Government Order handing over around 2,152 hectares of land back to the Forest Department, estate workers who were staying inside the estates were told to vacate the houses, prompting concerns that this was the first step as part of a concerted effort to permanently close down TANTEA, said R. Ramesh, former district secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). 

One retired worker, S. Ilangovan, 66, is a Sri Lankan refugee who has lived at the TANTEA estate in Pandiyar since 1992. Like many of his fellow workers, Mr. Ilangovan has now received a notice to vacate his house at the estate. “I was not repatriated as part of the Sirimavo-Shastri Pact, but was a refugee who was told at the Mandapam camp to go to Gudalur to find work,” said Mr. Ilangovan, who was a permanent worker employed by TANTEA till the age of 54. “I have no idea what to do if I am evicted from the house I currently live in, but I hope that I get to move to one of the houses promised to us by the State government. Otherwise, I will have to live with my children,” said Mr. Ilangovan, who has taken up work as a painter but still continues to use the TANTEA housing.