A delegation of Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union (DTDPLU), affiliated to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, met Kalyan Chakraborty, minister for food processing industries and horticulture, in Calcutta on Wednesday, requesting that he address the “adverse situation” in the cinchona plantation sector.
The demand to revitalising the cinchona plantation, the largest public sector undertaking in the Darjeeling hills that currently incurs an annual loss of around ₹60 crore, has gained fresh momentum with the new government coming to power.
The industry provides sustenance to more than 40,000 hill people.
Wednesday's delegation, led by DTDPLU president Suraj Subba, raised issues like filling up vacant posts and using the plantation’s infrastructure.
“The factories (for producing medicinal products) like quinine, emetine and diosgenin are unfortunately are all lying idle,” stated Subba.
The cinchona plantation, looked after by the directorate of cinchona and other medicinal plantations, is spread over 26,000 acres across the Darjeeling hills.
The history of the cinchona plantation in India goes back to the British era in the mid-19th century.
The British wanted to harvest quinine for malaria treatment. The plantation in north Bengal was first set up at Mungpoo, around 30km from Darjeeling, in 1862 by the British. It was soon expanded to Munsong (1900), Rongo (1938) and Latpancher in 1943.
The BJP MP of Darjeeling, Raju Bista, had raised concerns about the ailing cinchona plantation during a recent administrative meeting in Kalimpong.
“The plantation is currently generating an annual revenue of ₹11 crore annually while the expenses are around ₹70 crore. Through proper planning, revenue generation can be increased,” said Bista.
The Darjeeling MP said that of the 26,000 acres of plantation land, cinchona, from which quinine, a medical compound, is derived, is cultivated over an area of 6,800 acres.
Over the years, the directorate also diversified into other agricultural products in an effort to raise revenue.
It currently has a rubber plantation across 305 acres, ipecac across 28 acres, cardamom across 75 acres, and coffee across 218 acres, among others.
“So far, 95 acres of land have been handed over to the NHPC (formerly National Hydroelectric Power Corporation). Some land used for road construction, labour quarters, as well as fallow land comes to around 3,000 acres,” stated Bista. “We need to revive the plantation before everything is lost.”
The plantation hires around 5,000 workers, but the staff strength (Group C) is only 163 against a sanctioned 1,272, said Bista.
The plantation is currently under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration’s horticulture department.