Siliguri, March 30: The first flush is here but not the cheer it brings.

Lack of rain, coupled with high summer-like temperatures, have taken their toll on the first flush and the amount of leaves put on auction in Calcutta, Guwahati and Siliguri has dropped drastically.

The early setback is likely to haunt planters through the year because it is in the first flush — tea picked between mid-February and March end — that they get the best price.

Although there is no tea in the market, prices have fallen by around Rs 10 a kg — a phenomenon that the Dooars secretary of the Indian Tea Association failed to explain. “The decline in production is understandable, but the drop in price is a big surprise,” said Prabir Bhattacharya.

N.K. Basu, secretary of the Jalpaiguri tea auction centre, said: “The situation will get worse if it does not rain in the next couple of days.”

In the Dooars, it last rained in February.

Meteorologists, however, promised relief. “Moisture has started entering the region from last evening and we can expect some rain if this continues,” said the director of the Met office in Jalpaiguri.

Tea researchers are keeping their fingers crossed. “In case the dry spell prevails, chances of attack by pests like leper caterpillars and red spiders are high,” said one of them.

At the time of the traditional first sale, where the season’s first tea is offered, only 3,000 packets (of 40 kg each) were placed for auction (see box) compared with about 8,500 in the same sale in Calcutta last year.