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| China Tea Expo >> News Zone >> Tea News >> Content
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| India's tea trade threatened by strike called by Gurkha separatist group |
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CALCUTTA, India ¨C India's tea industry is losing $475,000 a day due to a strike by ethnic Gurkhas that has disrupted transport links and blocked roads in the eastern region of Darjeeling, officials said Tuesday.
The strike has shut down businesses and shops and kept most traffic off the roads, threatening the tea trade that is crucial to the economy of Darjeeling in West Bengal state.
The strike was called by the Gurkha Janamukti Morcha last week to demand a separate state for ethnic Gurkhas to be carved out of the Darjeeling hills.
Gurkha leaders say their dispute is with state authorities, not tea exporters, but the protests and reported threats to tea farmers have already hurt the tea business, officials said.
The strike could not have come at a worse time, said Basudev Banejree, chairman of India's Tea Board.
¡°This is the time when the best quality of tea is produced in Darjeeling tea gardens,¡± he told The Associated Press.
Last year, Darjeeling exported 13 million pounds of tea, nearly 7 percent of India's total exports, Banejree said.
The tea trade is losing $475,000 every day the strike continues, said Rajiv Lochan, secretary of the Darjeeling Tea Traders' Association.
Tea plantation owners said they have received threats to their businesses and their lives from Gurkha separatists in apparent attempts to intimidate local officials, Lochan said.
Authorities have repeatedly dismissed the Gurkhas' demands as out of the question.
The strike stranded tens of thousands of tourists, but many were allowed to leave in recent days, said Roshan Giri, secretary-general of Gurkha Janamukti Morcha.
State authorities agreed to meet with Gurkha leaders Tuesday, but Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the state's top elected official, said ¡°we will not consider¡± demands for a Gurkha state.
Gurkhas are an ethnic group in northern India and Nepal who are famed for their fighting prowess and bravery. They began serving as soldiers loyal to Britain in 1815 in India. When India gained independence from Britain in 1947, they became part of the British army.
The Gurkhas, under a separate group, the Gurkha National Liberation Front, fought for an independent state in the 1980s and were granted control over local village councils. But key areas such as finance and security remain controlled by the West Bengal state government.
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