Workers in a tea garden

Tufania (West Tripura), May 29: Faced with a choice between a nomadic existence and a settled life, they chose the latter. Three years later, they have their decision to thank.

In 2002, 15 tribal families had set foot on Tufania village in Sadar (north) under Sidhai police station in search of jhum land.

With yields from jhum cultivation dwindling in Barmura, tribal families had to leave on their periodic search for new lands and arrived in Tufania village.

The Sadar (north) area has 24 of the state?s altogether 57 tea gardens and confronted by the presence of shifting cultivators in nearby areas, the Tea Development Corporation (TDC) brought the matter to the notice of tribal welfare department for their rehabilitation.

?We contacted the shifting cultivators and offered to rehabilitate them on micro tea gardens and they agreed happily,? said Anirban Dasgupta.

It took considerable persuasion on the part of tribal welfare and TDC officials to convince the jhumias to bid farewell to their traditional way of life and settle down. With financial grants from the Tea Board and the state?s tribal welfare department, the families were allotted one hectare land each to begin tea cultivation.

?Before the maturing of the plants for sale of leaves to nearby big gardens, we helped them with work as day labourers to help them survive,? said Dasgupta.

Now the micro garden owners sell 15,000 kg of tea leaves to the nearby bigger Durgabai tea garden for processing.

?It has been a real change which is occurring in other parts of the state also,? said Dasgupta.

During the past five decades, rehabilitating tribal shifting cultivators has proved to be an intractable problem, as, wedded to the traditional slash-and-burn cultivation and nomadic life, the jhumias have always shown an aversion to settled life and cultivation.

There have been occasions when jhumias left rubber cultivation-based settlements within a year. According to latest census figures, there are still 55,000 shifting cultivators in Tripura.

?So far 1,300 jhumias have been resettled through micro tea gardens but the scheme is making rapid progress as already 3,500 micro gardens now dot the state,? said P.K. Sarkar, secretary of the Tea Association of India (TAI) said.

Out of 6,010 hectares of land currently under tea plantation, micro gardens spread over one acre to one hectare of land each.

?They are more like ancillaries now selling tea leaves to larger gardens, but it is providing employment and helping in rehabilitation of jhumias,? said Sarkar.

He said, however, low prices in auction centres in Guwahati and Calcutta was a threat to the entire tea industry in Tripura.