Lac grows on plant

A violent forest

After three hours of slow but steady cruise through meandering river channels, the research boat finally reached its first halt for the day. By the time I disembarked, the tide had receded, laying bare the mudflat. I ploughed through the knee-deep muck for about 15 metres before I could reach the relatively hard ground.

West Bengal fares poorly in MNREGS

Everybody loves waterbody

Humble filter makes a comeback

Playing with sea

Two leaves and a bud, a tale of certain exotics

At a time when the Assam government declared its plans to develop 22 golf courses nestled in its tea estates, a gruesome incident brought forth the misplaced priorities. On the evening of December 26, an angry mob of workers set on fire the bungalow of a tea estate owner in Tinsukia district. The owner, Mridul Bhattacharya, died along with his wife. The dispute started with unpaid wages and lack of housing facilities for the workers. Tea estate workers are typically paid a portion of their wage in cash and the remaining in fringe benefits like housing, subsidised ration and medical facilities guided by the Plantation Labour Act of 1951. But in most cases, the in-kind benefits seldom reach workers—be it in the largest tea producing state of Assam or the prized gardens of Darjeeling. There is simmering discontent in the picturesque tea gardens, as Down To Earth reported last year when the demand for better wages and facilities in the Darjeeling gardens merged with the demand for a separate statehood of Gorkhaland. When a young film-maker sets to uncover the secrets behind the famed Darjeeling tea, he chooses two abstractions to tell the story: a fictional narrative and the language of gibberish. The scriptwriter and director of ‘Six Strands’, Chaitanya Tamhane, extracts a promise from the viewer at the very beginning of his 15 minutes short film. ‘I will tell you what I know about her. But promise me you’ll keep a secret. Or else I will get in trouble.’

Fish and a philosophy

Toxic punch: heavy use of pesticides depleting local fish and bird populations

An average Bengali meal is incomplete without fish, many of which are local varieties not found or grown outside West Bengal.

Durga Puja pandals in Kolkata get a green spin