TEA POINTS

REKINDLING THE BRITISH-ERA ROMANCE WITH TEA CAN HELP UTTARAKHAND REVITALISE ITS ECONOMY AND RESOLVE THE LONG DRAWN-OUT MIGRATION CRISIS

- G C S NEGI AND VIMLA BISHT

FARMERS IN UTTARAKHAND HAD ABANDONED AGRICULTURE BECAUSE OF MONKEY AND WILD BOAR MENANCE. SINCE TEA DOES NOT GET RAIDED BY THESE ANIMALS, THIS CAN ACT AS AN INCENTIVE FOR THE FARMERS TO RETURN TO FIELDS

THE DESERTED villages of Uttarakhand are springing back to life. Some 330,000 people have returned home after decades due to the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19. The government estimates that about 45 per cent of them would stay back. To retain the workers Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has announced a plethora of schemes and provisions (see ‘The hills are coming alive’, Down To Earth, 1-15 September). While there is a great deal of emphasis on the farm sector, one crop that holds a win-win opportunity is the cultivation and processing of the world’s most favourite beverage: tea.

Though Uttarakhand is not known as a tea-growing state, it has a long tryst with the evergreen shrub, named