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Koomber Tea Garden has proper roads, street
lights and neat houses supplied with electricity.
When state assembly members protested angrily in
April about the failure of tea estates in the Barak
Valley to supply power, Koomber was named as the
exception.
Tea estates in India are more highly taxed than
other industries. They also face high expectations.
Local people and government officials expect them
to help with public services and amenities. In
responding to this, Koomber has won widespread
praise.
The garden is in an isolated side valley of the
Brahmaputra in Assam, a province connected to the
rest of India by only a narrow corridor north of
Bangladesh. The district, called Cachar, is
Bengali-speaking.
Koomber, first planted around 1880, is owned by
the Lawrie Group plc which took its present form
almost 20 years ago when British owned tea estates
had to be restructured; but Koomber has been
associated with the group for much longer. It has
2,000 workers and is managed by a local man, Dilip
Syam. Lawrie’s managing director in India, S. K.
Bhasin, worked at Koomber 23 years.
Workers are encouraged to open bank accounts and
so save money rather than spend it as soon as it is
earned. Houses currently being provided have modern
sanitation and smokeless ovens.
The
garden produces around 2,000 tonnes of tea a year,
some of it sold as packet tea in India. Tea prides
itself as a green industry; and Koomber has given a
lead by cutting its use of chemical pesticides and
using neem (from neem trees) instead.
The Koomber hospital serves the surrounding
population and sends a mobile unit regularly to
neighbouring villages. It provides a medical
service to two villages inhabited by tribal
people.
Koomber helped build a science laboratory at
Cachar College, Silchar, the chief town of the
area. It has helped other schools with classrooms,
furniture and scholarships for poor pupils. Ten
years ago, it gave a library to Morley High School,
which was founded by a Koomber superintendent.
A higher secondary school principal, Bimal
Choudhury, says Koomber’s help has changed
attitudes. “People from all walks of life are now
coming forward to help the school.
To create employment, Koomber has encouraged
local enterprises with cash and free advice.
Previously unemployed youngsters make cane
furniture, cook fast food and sell clothes and
other goods in Camellia Corner, an estate store.
Fish from an artificial lake, the Teckulpar
Fishery, is sold cheaply to local people.
What has also impressed Silchar is Koomber’s
promotion of local sport, including five-a-side
football and the provision of an indoor coaching
centre.
Batuda Dasgupta, 82-year-old sports pioneer,
calls the centre a dream come true.
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