Tuberculosis finds easy pickings in closed tea gardens of north Bengal

Rampant malnutrition has led to a rise in TB among workers, many of whom are already grapping with loss of livelihood. With the disease taking a steep toll on their mental and physical health, the labourers are hoping for their abandoned gardens to reopen   

A tea factory and its related infrastructure lies in ruins at the Lankapara Tea Garden in West Bengal's Madarihat block. Acres of tea plants have either turned brown or dried up in the garden suggesting years of neglect. The garden, home to thousands of tea workers, is located next to the picturesque hills that separate India and Bhutan, but has remained closed since the spring of 2015. For workers, the closure has meant poverty, malnutrition and an unforeseen malaise - tuberculosis.

Kamal Mangar, 25, queues up at a State-run health clinic behind the hospital that had been destroyed along with the tea factory. A health worker takes his weight and shouts 39 kg. The youth suffering from tuberculosis has clearly been reduced to a bag of bones.

There have been 11 cases of tuberculosis at the garden since 2019, the health worker at the State-run clinic said. Lankapara village has a population of about 7,500 and about 30% of people have migrated out for work. Kamal cannot go out for work to Kerala like did a few years ago because of his illness.

The youth’s father Kancha Mangar, who is also unemployed, said his son does not get the ₹500 per month welfare assistance given by the State to tuberculosis patients. Since the plantation has remained closed for seven years, the workers of the garden survive on five months of plucking (April to September) and selling the leaves through various committees run by workers.

About 30 km away from the Lankapara Tea Garden is Dheklepara Tea Garden which has been closed since 2002. At the entrance of the garden located in West Bengal’s Alipurduar district, stands the dilapidated structure of a tea processing factory, and a few rusted vehicles. Near the structure, a few workers of the garden are weighing a pile of tea leaves collected from plants that still survive in the garden.

A few meters away, at the workers' quarters, Praksh Tanti (56) lies on his bed well past afternoon. On June 15, he had been released from Birpara Sadar Hospital and the diagnosis states `Tuberculosis Pleural Effusion’, one of the most common kinds of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. He cannot work and doctors have prescribed him a high-protein diet including eggs, which he said he cannot afford. His 22-year-old son has migrated out for work and does not keep in touch with the family. Like Mr. Mangar, Mr. Tanti too does not get the ₹500 per month assistance from the government.

Anuradha Talwar of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, who has been working with unions of tea gardens in north Bengal, said that the closed gardens provide an ideal set-up for malnutrition and tuberculosis.