Can Kangra’s tea regain its old flavour?

PALAMPUR: In Chhitku village, 25 km from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, if you ask for chai from a vendor, he will serve you well, but not with Kangra tea.

Sharanvir Singh, the tea stall owner, does not know if Kangra tea is any product. Suna hai export hota hai. Baki nahi malum, he says. Singh’s ignorance is surprising, given that Kangra, known for its tea plantations, is just a few kilometres away.

Kangra tea was once rated higher than Darjeeling tea. But now, one barely knows about Brand Kangra. “Such is its identity crisis that Kangra is now sold as ‘Darjeeling tea’,” says PS Ahuja, director of the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology.

The crisis was perpetuated with the area under tea cultivation in the valley shrinking fast. Ten years ago, tea plantations in Kangra covered 3,000 hectares. At present it covers less than 1,800 hectares.

“The decline took place because tea growers did not find the cultivation profitable,” says Ahuja.

“Besides, real estate dealers kept encroaching upon the estates. They took away more than 500 hectares in the last two years.”

The Kangra valley grows a hybrid variety of China tea which compares favorably with tea grown in the best estates of the world. Situated at heights of 900 to 1,500 metres above sea level, most of the tea gardens are 150 years old.

Tea in the valley was introduced in 1854 when the Holta tea estate was set up by the British.
In the late 19th century, the Nissan tea company undertook widespread cultivation. However, after the devastation caused by a massive earthquake in 1905, tea production lost steam.

Seventy-five years after the earthquake, four tea cooperatives were opened at Palampur, Bir, Sidhbari and Baijnath.

The crop got a new lease of life. But the cooperatives started losing ground in the 80s when the quality of tea rapidly deteriorated and property developers started eyeing the estates.

Senior BJP leader and local MLA Ravinder Thakur criticises the state government for granting permission for the sale of tea gardens.

“In a number of villages, people have uprooted tea bushes. The Land Revenue Act bans the sale of tea gardens. The state government has been violating the law.”

Efforts are on by agriculture research institutes to breathe life into Kangra tea. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Palampur, has produced a variety using the tissue culture technique.

“Production has shot up, owing to this technique. The yield has increased from 84 kg of green tea leaves per hectare to 200 kg per hectare,” says Ahuja. Among these efforts is organic tea farming, which is farming without the use of any chemicals or pesticides.

“This will boost the tea’s export potential,” Ahuja says.  It remains to be seen whether Kangra gets back its old flavour.