Toxicitea tangle
Safeguards have been erected to weed out the supplies of tea laden with high pesticide residue levels. But when governments use these benchmarks …
Cashew farmers in Odisha to suffer losses as tea mosquito bug destroys crops
Around 40% cashew plants in the state infected by bugs, estimate experts
Workers starving due to closure of tea estates in North Bengal
India’s Manas National Park illustrates the human dimension of rhino conservation
The fortunes of the park’s rhinos are intertwined with ethnic politics in India’s restive Assam State
No price panel meetings in 10 Assam tea-growing districts in 5 years, finds CAG
Less than 4 meetings held in the rest of the 8 districts; less than two meetings per year took place in 5 West Bengal tea districts during 2016-…
Industrial processing contaminates tea
Growing organic tea in northeast India is a difficult task
Comfort backpack
An improved plucking basket promises to alleviate muscular pain and fatigue, two major health problems faced by tea garden workers
South Asia
Just like a forest
Analog forestry mimics a forest to create an economically productive and ecologically diverse landscape
Vignettes from Sri Lanka's cloud country
In Sri Lanka, organic farmers draw inspiration from endemic practices such as home gardens or analog forestry, and have also adapted ‘…
Tata Tea under scanner for poor living condition and coercion of workers
World Bank authorises enquiry after investing US $8 million in the global beverages company
Lost in plantation
Millions of growers and workers are in distress in Kerala, the plantation capital of India, as domestic and international prices of cash crops …
West Bengal labour department's tea garden survey kept under wraps
Excerpts and recommendations from the unpublished survey report of all tea gardens in the state that reveals miserable living conditions of …
Polluting units shut in Kaziranga
Green tribunal fines state, Centre for allowing stone crushers, brick kilns near Assam park
Crisis brewing
Collapse of the former Soviet market and an indifferent attitude to quality clips Nilgiris tea industry
West Bengal’s tea-tribe voters have a jumbo problem
Workers in Majherdabri tea estate say no candidate is addressing their fear of elephant attacks
Assam moves to curb pesticides in vegetables, tea
Pesticide limits to be set for vegetables; cultivators could be fined or banned from undertaking cultivation if their products exceed limit
Red mite threatens tea plantations in Tamil Nadu
Different colours of green
How media has shaped people's understanding of environment
Why are tea plantation workers dying of hunger?
Lack of oversight by state governments, along with low wages and tough working conditions, is causing starvation deaths, says a fact finding team
Simmering discontent over tea
The newfound success of brand Darjeeling is fuelling suspicion between planters and workers. Sayantan Bera reports
Worms thriving in brains, Assam’s tea garden workers lose lives, livelihoods
Neurocysticercosis triggered by tapeworms that easily travel between humans and pigs present a real, imminent danger of zoonosis; an …
Letters
Crushed and torn
Closed tea gardens of West Bengal are enclaves of death and destitution. Speculative ownership and a callous government have prolonged the crisis,…