Oranges, the pride of Darjeeling’s winter basket, are expected to turn scarce this season as landslides have destroyed the very slopes that nurture them.
The mandarin from Darjeeling, though smaller in size than the Nagpur variety, is considered better in quality and is in much demand during the winter.
Mani Raj Rai, an orange cultivator at Mirik Busty, said: “Landslides have destroyed our orchards with hundreds of fruit-bearing trees uprooted and buried under the mud.”
Mirik, along with Pokhriabong, Marybong, Sitong and Mungpoo, is known for orange cultivation in the Darjeeling hills.
Bidhya Chandra Rai, another farmer at Mirik Busty, said that he sold oranges at prices that ranged between ₹60,000 and ₹70,000 every year.
“Oranges are a major source of our earnings. Most of our products are sold to traders in Siliguri,” said Chandra.
The farmer, however, couldn’t give the figure of quantity he sold every year.
Satish Pokhrel, the GTA Sabha member in charge of agriculture, said the hill body was receiving reports of major damage to orange orchards.
GTA officials said they started assessing losses in different parts of the hills. “We started the assessment from Jasbirgoan and Mirik from today (Thursday),” said Prabhas Mondal, the deputy director of the horticulture department at the GTA.
Sources said oranges used to be grown across 4,150 hectares in the hills.
“However, of late, orange production is slowly declining in the Margybong-Bijanbari belt,” said Sandeep Chhetri, the GTA Sabha member of Marybong constituency.
Sources said that over the decade, the annual production of Darjeeling oranges had come down from around 52 to 29 metric tons.
Experts said hill orchards were facing multiple problems, such as attacks by insects like trunk borer, citrus tristeza virus and fruit flies, greening (fungal infections) and poor farming practices.
The sources said attempts would be made to revive the cherished fruit not only through research but also through intervention at the orchard and administrative levels.
“We are now looking at starting new orchards using grafted and budded plants, implementing drip irrigation systems, identifying model orchards and arranging training for these farmers,” said a source.
Training of orchard owners in handling diseases, insect-pest control and following best practices is also high on the agenda of experts.
Farmers are also being taught the nitty-gritties of preparing insecticides and plant grafts.
“We are looking at distributing around five lakh seedlings and orange grafts,” said a source.
Additional reporting by Bireswar Banerjee in Siliguri