A tea estate in Alipurduar which employs around 1,800 workers is almost marooned these days since the two roads connecting the tea garden with the rest of the district have been extensively damaged by the flash floods in two rivers that skirt the garden.

The Central Dooars tea estate, which is in Kalchini block and around 42km from the district headquarters, is practically cut off from the remaining parts of the district.

“Vehicles could not enter the garden due to the miserable conditions of the roads. We could not get trucks to bring coal, diesel and food grains into the garden. Also, around 40,000 kilos of tea is there in the garden and we cannot dispatch it for auctions. We have appealed to the district administration, seeking their intervention so that at
least one of the roads is repaired so that vehicles can move,” said Shantanu Basu, the garden’s manager.

Around 25,000 people live in the garden. There are two roads which connect the garden to Jaigaon and Kalchini. To reach Jaigaon one has to cross the Basra river and the bridge over the river collapsed in April this year.

“Since then, we couldn’t use the road. On the other hand, Kalijhora and Pana, the two rivers cut the road that connects to Kalchini. There have been flash floods in these rivers which caused extensive damage to the roads,” mentioned Basu.

With such a situation, the management is apprehensive about whether it will be able to disburse wages to the workers in the coming days.

“We need to put the tea for auction so that the sale proceeds are used to make payments. But we could not dispatch the tea and are keeping our fingers crossed,” said an official.

Apart from damaging the roads, the rivers have also caused other damages to the garden, said locals.

During the ongoing monsoon, flash floods in the rivers have swept away around 18 hectares of tea plantation.

“During the past couple of years, we have lost around 30 hectares of plantation because of flash floods and erosion,” said a resident.

Officials of the district administration said they are aware of the situation.

“We are trying to send the food grains (distributed from PDS counters) to the garden at the earliest. Officials of the irrigation department have visited the location but unless
water levels of the rivers recede, nothing much can be done,” said R. Vimala, the district magistrate.