14th May 2022 10:05:PM Editorials
Eastern Sentinel Arunachal News

The potential of Tea in changing the fortune of Arunachal has been over the recent years strongly pushed on commoners in an attempt to make locals take to Tea Industry in a big way. In what might come as a surprise to many, Arunachal Pradesh is the second highest tea producing state in the Northeast after Assam and holds the fifth spot in the country. Categorised as a traditional tea-growing state, it has about 25 organized tea industries across 14 districts producing about 12 Million kg of tea per annum.  This data is likely to have changed in the last few years.
 
However, this ‘green gold’ is mired in a paradox. On one side even as the state government is pushing people to adopt it, unfavourable forest policy is forcing a considerable number of
tea gardens to down their shutters for good.
 
An order passed by Supreme Court in the year 1996 in view of large scale destruction of forests in Tirap & Changlang districts, has made it mandatory to obtain NOC from Ministry
of Environment & Forest (MoEF), that the area proposed for cultivation is not a forest land and must not violate Forest Conservation Act 1980. There is need to modify this order.
 
This will not only be beneficial to small tea growers or entrepreneurs but also help the state government’s vision of turning Jhum fields into organic tea gardens. If this sees the light of day, it will truly be a remarkable step in addressing deforestation problem and livelihood generation for the masses.
 
Arunachal has the climatic requirements for producing world class tea and with concerted effort it has the potential to figure as one of the hotspots in the Tea road map of the world provided proper scientific planning and tea management methods are practiced by tea growers.
 
Doing ease of job is of great importance and getting clearance from the Central Ministry is a major bottleneck to small tea growers who wish to get engaged in tea cultivation. Therefore, this is an issue which needs to be discussed if both the Centre and the state are truly serious about the growth of Tea in Arunachal.


Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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