Nationwide Lockdown: Leaf plucking starts in tea gardens of Tripura

A Correspondent

Agartala: With the relaxation granted by the Centre and the State governments, labourers in 52 tea gardens in Tripura have resumed the work of plucking leaves. Tea garden sources said despite resumption of work, plucking is much less than expected as only half of the labourers could be engaged in the task following guidelines of maintaining social distancing.

The plucking season has started at least a fortnight back but the gardens could not start work due to restrictions imposed on gathering and instructions issued to stop work as part of the step to prevent the spread of coronavirus. According to sources, due to this delay, a good quantity of leaves got damaged causing serious loss for the tea garden owners.

Reports from Mohonpur said work has started in all the 17 gardens of the sub-division including Durgabari and Binodini. Similarly, reports have been received from all other tea producing sub-divisions also.

Apart from 52 big tea gardens, there are few hundred small family-owned tea gardens in the State. They also now have started leaf plucking.

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