Jaigaon, April 25: The management of Changmari tea estate has introduced a machine for plucking leaves in the garden, the trial for which was conducted yesterday.

The machine made in Japan weighs 11kg and three workers are needed to operate it.

In six hours, it can pluck 500kg of tealeaves from an area of 1.5 hectares.

General manager of the garden, D. S. Parmar said, 25 workers need the same time to pluck 500kg of leaves.

The garden in Nagrakata, 110km from here, is the first in north Bengal to use such a machine which the management claims will result in better production.

“We are a 1,400-hectare garden with about 4,000 workers. Back in 2008, we hit an all-time high in production with 32.52 lakh kg of tea. But we have the capability of producing 35 lakh kg a year. For that we are having to employ extra workers, another 1,000, from outside and they come from places 25 to 30km away,” Parmar said. He said most youths of the garden were going elsewhere to look for jobs after finishing their education and the number of male workers were also declining. “Shortage of workers in the garden has hampered the quantity and quality of production. For this we are introducing the machine,” he said.

The plucking machine costing Rs 1.1 lakh consumes a litre of petrol in an hour, he said.

The management has said one machine will be used for plucking tealeaves this season and more machines would be procured if the results were satisfactory. “We will take the final decision after conferring with the trade unions,” Parmar said.

Yesterday, the demonstration was conducted in front of the workers and representatives of the trade unions in the garden.

Parmar added that Monabarie tea estate in Assam has the highest production in India with 35 lakh kg of tea a year.

“Our factory has a capacity of 40 lakh kg a year and we can achieve that target easily with more efficient plucking,” he said. The trade union leaders, however, fear that the introduction of the plucking machine would mean that there will be lay offs in the garden. “There is no question of laying off anyone as they will be transferred to other departments,” Parmar said.