Siliguri, July 10: Tea associations in the Dooars have blamed the government for failing to arrest soil erosion that has resulted in the loss of hectares of plantation land.

In a letter written to state commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen in March this year, the Tea Association of India had asked the government to initiate some effective measures to arrest soil erosion in the tea gardens.

“It has been more than 20 years since we requested the government to adopt some effective erosion control measures. Nothing has been done so far to protect the tea gardens from the fury of the swollen rivers,” said D.N. Gupta, the secretary of the north Bengal branch of the Tea Association of India.

A large number of rivers, including the Teesta, Torsa, Raidhak, Sankosh, Basra, Dima, Chel, Daina, Pagli, Reti and Pana, course through the region. Several have their sources in neighbouring Bhutan. Experts said the flood and erosion of had hit the tea gardens hard.

Much of north Bengal counts on the tea industry, the second largest in the country. Some 343 tea gardens sprawl across the Dooars, Terai and Darjeeling hills, the majority of them being in the Dooars. In Jalpaiguri district, the hub of the Dooars, 168 gardens produce 150 million kilograms of tea. Like elsewhere, the tea industry is faced with an unprecedented crisis, with increasing costs and dropping revenue

Secretary of the Dooars branch of the Indian Tea Association P.K. Bhattacharjee said: “The greatest fear during floods is the loss of land because of erosion. With rivers changing course every year, a major chunk of tea garden land is washed away and several hectares rendered fallow.”

“For the tea gardens it is not possible to build embankments as it involves huge costs. Such expenditures cannot be afforded by the industry, which is already reeling from a slump,” said Aditya Antar Chatterjee, secretary of the Terai Indian Planters’ Association.