Darjeeling (28 page)

Politically, though, the move proved effective. In July 2011, the GJM, the West Bengal state government, and the federal Indian government signed an agreement to set up an autonomous administrative body for the Darjeeling hills with substantially more powers over socioeconomic, agricultural, infrastructural, educational, cultural, and linguistic issues. Elections took place at the end of July 2012, with the GJM sweeping all 45 seats unopposed.

From the outset, whether this would lead to a significant level of autonomy, even independence, or whether it was merely a placating move on the part of the government remained to be seen. The leader of the GJM, Bimal Gurung, continued to insist that the agreement was “only the preparation for the separate state of Gorkhaland.”
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While Chief Minister Banerjee categorically refused to consider this option, Gurung saw it happening within a year. When Gurung was sworn in as the president of the newly created Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) in August, he reiterated his push for independence. “I will not let it delay further,” he stressed. “In six months.”
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The relationship between Gurung’s GJM and Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress Party settled into an uneasy truce, even with the GJM rhetoric of “violence and bloodbath” if its demand for separated
statehood was not met. While uncertainty dominated, 2013’s first and second flushes passed without major political incidents on the tea estates.

But then at the end of July 2013, as monsoon teas were being plucked and processed, India’s ruling Congress Party offered statehood to Telangana, in Andhra Pradesh. “They granted Telangana statehood, so why not Gorkhaland?” went the familiar cry. Gurung resigned as head of the GTA and called an indefinite
bandh
. A GJM supporter immolated himself. Tourists and students were asked to leave. Shops closed, roads emptied, and hotels shut. Schools canceled classes. Boarding students were sent home. Nothing could move. Vehicles on the road were burned. “There will be hardships but our movement will continue,” Gurung said.
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Again, tea estates were given an exemption. Yet this time they could not bring anything into the estates—food, fuel—nor take any tea out. Bushes need to be plucked; harvesting continued. Sacks of finished tea stacked up as stocks of coal, fuel, atta flour, and rice dwindled. Whenever a day’s relaxation in the
bandh
allowed people to restock basic necessities, convoys of trucks loaded with tea made their way down out of the hills as quickly as possible.

Finally, on September 10, 2013, after nearly six weeks, the
bandh
was suspended. Traffic returned to the roads. At the end of October, Chief Minister Banerjee arrived in the Darjeeling hills for a five-day visit. Gurung reversed his stance, met with her, and promised to call no more
bandhs
.

In the run-up to the 2014 Indian general election, Gurung took a new approach. The GJM switched its support to the Narendra Modi–led Bharatiya Janata Party’s parliamentary candidate for Darjeeling. After the BJP’s landside victory, Gurung was rewarded with an invitation to Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in Delhi at the end of May. When the West Bengal chief minister returned to the hills for a visit in July to help rekindle her relationship, Gurung gave her the cold shoulder.
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Their relationship had soured. The struggle for statehood continues, but now with a new ally.

During the 2013 monsoon season
bandh
, as tea piled up in Darjeeling factories and orders went unfilled, some buyers began sourcing their long-leaf orthodox teas for blending from other places. “This year with all of the problems [certain blenders] bought from Nepal,” said one planter.

While Sikkim’s lone tea estate, Temi, produces teas most similar in character to Darjeeling’s, the neighbor to the west—Nepal—is the biggest potential competition, even threat, as the recent crisis laid bare.

Winding through India’s Mirik Valley on the western flanks of the Darjeeling hills, past Chamong, Spring Valley, and Gopaldhara tea estates, and before cutting through Okayti and Thurbo, the road runs along the eastern India-Nepal border. On a foggy, drizzly July day, with mist hanging between the tall pine trees and upturned, white flowers shaped like old gramophone speakers along the weedy edge of the tarmac, messages from Vodafone India arrived on the mobile phone (“Hello, have a pleasant stay in Nepal”) followed by ones from NCELL, the local Nepalese carrier. Tea estates spread along both sides of the road.

Although the first saplings planted in Nepal were said to be a gift to the prime minister, Jung Bahadur Rana, from the Chinese emperor in 1842, the industry developed with stock, not to mention expertise, from Darjeeling. In 1982, King Birendra declared five eastern regions a “tea zone.” Ilam Tea Estate—the first commercial estate, planted out in 1863—remains the best. Overall, Nepal’s 142 estates produced about 18 million kilograms (40 million pounds) of tea in 2012, roughly twice as much as Darjeeling. But only 2.4 million kilograms of that—some 13 percent—is orthodox. The rest is CTC. While nearly all of the CTC is consumed in Nepal, 96 percent of the orthodox is exported.
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The quality of Nepalese tea has been improving in recent years and carries similar taste and aroma profiles. Buyers and tasters have taken notice. “It’s always in the back of the minds of producers,” said Anindyo Choudhury of Darjeeling’s growers after the 2013 season had ended, “that they will get into their market.” Since then there has been a sudden awakening to the likelihood of this soon happening, and the issue has moved to the front of their minds. They are suddenly seeing it as one of their biggest challenges.

German and other European blenders have already begun marketing a “Himalayan tea” made with Nepalese leaves
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that cost a third of what Darjeeling does. Perhaps of greater concern for Darjeeling gardens are domestic packeteers buying for the national market. They are looking for value for money. If the quality is there and the price is right, many are not that concerned about on which side of the border the tea was produced.

In the future, Nepal could be even more of a threat. In ten years, Nepal’s National Tea and Coffee Development Board expects to expand plantings significantly and produce 45 million kilograms (100 million
pounds) of tea with 30 million kilograms of that Darjeeling-style orthodox, some fifteen times as much as is now produced.

Climate changes, labor problems, and severe political instability have all contributed to significant reductions in Darjeeling’s output. Darjeeling once produced 16 to 17 million kilograms (35 to 37 million pounds) of tea, and as recently as 1991 reached 14.5 million kilograms. The 2010 crop, hit by drought and then excessive rain, cutting the first flush by 25 percent, didn’t even reach 8 million kilograms, the lowest since the 1950s. The 2011 harvest edged back up slightly with better conditions, but then 2012 got off to a terrible start, with droughtlike conditions and yields down a massive 40 percent. The 2013 harvest also began poorly. Tea bushes need three or four inches of rain between October and March. But no rain fell from the previous October until a sprinkling wetted the tea bushes in February, causing the first flush to be delayed. During April, the peak of the sought-after first flush, the harvest was down 24 percent from the previous year. The 2014 harvest began even worse. The lack of rain in the spring, with a more than two-month-long dry spell that lasted into May, pushed the first flush down 30 to 40 percent below 2013’s harvest. Some gardens lost even more, depending on the microclimate of the valley of the garden. “Gopaldhara [in the Mirik Valley] was down 33 percent, but Rohini [running up from the plains to Kurseong] was down 50 percent,” said Rishi Saria, “and that from last year, which wasn’t too good.”

First and second flush fetch good prices at auction. Together, they account for a third of the year’s crop but about half its revenue. The monsoon season contributes around 60 percent of the year’s total production, but much of this is sold below production costs. Autumn flush makes up the remainder.

That leaves little room for the kind of climatic unpredictability that stalks estates. In 2012, a hailstorm hit Marybong the first week of April and devastated its valuable first flush harvest. The same happened to Castleton in 2013, with a bruising of hailstones that knocked the quality of its highly coveted second flush.
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The heavy monsoons that drenched most of Darjeeling’s valleys during 2013 coupled with the summer political instability pushed down prices for the rainy-season teas by as much as 50 percent at J. Thomas & Co.’s auctions in Kolkata.
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Then the cold came early and the 2013 season
wrapped up suddenly, quicker than expected. Most gardens missed their year-end targets.

Giving production declines an even deeper impact on profits is the recent leap in nonlabor input expenses. Sandeep Mukherjee puts them at 30 percent in a single year. Part comes from the significant increase in energy costs—electricity rates, coal prices, generator fuel—that jumped 15 percent between 2012 and 2013. Transportation costs shot up accordingly. Nearly everything in Darjeeling either comes from or goes down to the plains below. And now irrigation, which had not been prevalent in Darjeeling, is raising costs further.

Profit margins are thin. Today, a garden in Darjeeling is lucky if it is profitable. Final accounting numbers are known only by the highest levels of the head office and are rarely shared, but in the opinion of one owner with a number of gardens, the majority of Darjeeling estates are breaking even or losing money. Many are already in deep trouble. Soon-to-rise labor expenses will likely push more into the red in the upcoming seasons. Whereas a Rs 100,000 (about $1,800) per-hectare profit might be a round goal, he would be surprised if any garden is currently reaching that and figures a handful of well-managed groups might be making Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 ($450 to $900) per hectare. That isn’t much. The average garden is cultivating just 224 hectares of tea. Larger companies with holdings beyond their Darjeeling gardens are better able to absorb losses, but a few more years of such dire numbers will spell doom for many of the family-held estates.

While production costs rise and output declines, lower-quality counterfeit “Darjeeling tea” from Nepal and elsewhere undermines its reputation and cuts both value and sales even further. Ecological predictions for the future of the Darjeeling hills could hardly be more dire. As one local government survey summed up, with the mounting problems and strain on its natural resources, “The future of the Darjeeling hills does not look very bright.”
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The report was referring to the land itself and landslides, but when looking at these major challenges, it may as well have been speaking about the entire tea industry.

Sitting in his office beside the Planters’ Club, Mukherjee went even further in a flight of pessimism—or realism: “In twenty-five to thirty years, Darjeeling tea may vanish.”

*
 Even Jungpana is not immune to labor issues. During the 2014 monsoon flush, the owners took the unprecedented step of temporarily suspending all work operations along with pay and rations. They cited intimidation and threats from union officials interfering with managerial decisions. Tactics included
gharaoing
, a protest method of surrounding someone with a large group of people—often for many hours—until demands are met. It took two weeks and three rounds of meetings to negotiate the garden’s reopening.

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 As there is no plucking on Sundays, a seven-day round is actually six plucking days.

The monsoon clouds have retreated, the skies cleared, and again the glacier-capped peaks of the Himalayas dominate the horizon. The slopes glow in serene lavenders, pinks, and pale golds in the last, softening light as the sun disappears early and darkness descends over Darjeeling by five
P.M.

The final flush is short, just a few weeks or so on each side of the Diwali holiday celebrated at the end of October or early November. Baby-blue flycatchers with banditlike eye masks, woodcocks, and leaf-green magpies dart among the garden’s shade trees. Marigolds bordering the fields flower ruddy yellow, their bases ringed with deep-orange petals. On the bushes, white tea flowers blossom: floral, fragrant, and tropical, they have the sweetness of jasmine, but not as cloying.

The autumnal leaves produce a liquor colored a ruddy copper, bright auburn, even burgundy. What a surprise to see claret tones glowing in the white tasting cup! So far from the greenish golds of spring. Sipped, the tea’s flavor is round and more robust than that of the previous flushes, with mellowed hints of musky spice and smoke. There is a sparkle, a slight kick even.

“It’s the most complex flush. It’s the most sophisticated flush. It’s the most refined flush,” said Sanjay Sharma over breakfast under a pomelo tree just below the old planter’s bungalow on Glenburn. “By this I mean it’s got everything in it. It’s a very
fine
tea.” On this late morning in November, the chain of peaks shimmered to the north. “Fine,” he repeated, drawing out the word, “smooth, mellow.” As he spoke, his eyes remained on Kanchenjunga rising boldly up in the pristine sky with all the distraction of a flickering TV
screen in a sports bar. “It has that body, amber color, very defined flavors, from malts to chocolates to fruity notes, dried apricots. It just sits on the palate, just sits and sits and sits. Just lingers there.”

It has presence but not impatience.

And poetry:

Leaves: This beautiful autumn harvest surprises with twisted leaves in multiple colours (silver, green, brown, red).

Nose: The nose is treated to notes of chocolate as well as woody fragrances, stewed fruit and plum jam.

Liquor: From the onset, the brilliant amber liquor enchants us with a buttery, vanilla-laced background on which fruity notes (fresh Agen prunes, accentuated by cooked apple and quince jam), honey and a floral hint (rose, geranium) coalesce. The finale ascends with a halo of woody and liquorice notes lingering over this grand bouquet.
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