Workers of Doloo Tea Estate near Silchar in south Assam have demanded the replantation of about 41lakh-plus tea bushes uprooted between May 12 and 14 to pave the way for the construction of the proposed greenfield airport there.

Replantation of the tea bushes was among several demands the workers and their supporters had flagged during the protest procession and the subsequent meeting held on Sunday to mark two years of the uprooting.

The workers also “celebrated” the May 6 Supreme Court ruling that stayed the authorities from carrying out any activity at the proposed airport site because they had “acted” in violation of environmental rules, said Manas Das, vice-president of the Asom Mojuri Shramik Union (AMSU), Cachar district.

Several hundred workers had started gathering at 9am, then took out the procession covering 2km and then held a meeting at the community hall in Mainagarh division, one of the four divisions of the Doloo Tea Estate, Das said. The programme ended around 1pm.

“May 12 was observed as Black Day by the workers for the second year running. It was on this day the administration had started the uprooting of the tea bushes despite requests by the garden workers not to do so as it (tea bush) was everything to them, their livelihood. Some 150 bulldozers were used for three days to uproot over 41 lakh tea bushes from May 12,” Das told The Telegraph.

Das, whose organisation has been leading the protest against the setting up of the airport in the affected garden area as it would impact both livelihood and environment, said: “We are not against the airport. There are vacant areas where it could be set up. The workers in their meeting on Sunday wanted the replantation of the tea bushes to save the profit-making garden. The clearance of tea bushes will also affect the ecology of the other three divisions of the garden.”

The workers have also sought pay parity between Barak Valley tea gardens and Brahmaputra Valley tea gardens and also the allotment of land patta to garden workers, Das said. Along with the AMSU, the Forum for Social Harmony, Silchar unit, is also leading the movement against setting up of the airport at the proposed site, he said.

The apex court bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra in its order said: “From the material placed on record, we are of the view that authorities in the present case have acted in violation of the EIA notification by carrying out extensive clearance at the site in the absence of environmental clearance.” “We direct that no activity shall be carried out in breach of the EIA notification, 2006,” the bench said.

The court also pulled up the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for “complete abdication of duty” .