Tea Plantations in Kerala State

Untamed Jungle

The landscape in the Western Ghats of Kerala State is unspeakably beautiful. Not only is the natural landscape of tightly concentrated rolling hills and ridges, thick jugle and steep scarps impressive, but the agriculturally altered tea-scape is breath-taking. Tea is planted in row after row, quilting the hills with every shade of green and smoothing the terrain so that it appears upholstered. Right in the acres and acres of tea are planted shade trees, arranged sparsely but regularly, some of which are orange trees, others used eventually for fire wood or furniture-making. Tea extends up the slopes to very steep terrain, anywhere there is some soil, and small paths and dirt access roads wind throughout. It gives the effect of an extremely manicured garden. Dotted at intervals in the vast tea-scape are small communities, villages with brightly-painted rows of simple dwellings, churches and temples. It appears idyllic. The reality is somewhat different for those who live here.



Tea in the Western Ghats

Tea was introduced to the hill country in Kerala in the 1840s and 1850s by several British planters who saw a potential use for the lands inland from the Kerala coastline. The sparce local population was used for guides and trackers and support personnel for the early forays into the jungle covered mountains. Initially the tiger, elephant, deer, wild goat, wild pig and bird hunting were the main draws to this area.

Rolling tea scape

By 1850 several very large tracts of land were leased to several planters who started experimenting with tea and other crops. Large labor forces were needed to clear the land and tend the crops so workers were imported from Tamil Nadu, a neighboring state with a larger population. Everything had to be brought into and built in these mostly unmapped areas. Large tracts of land were cut and cleared from the jungle. Roads were constructed. Housing, factories, schools, churches, clinics, and stores were built. By the 1900s tea was king and cardamom, ginger, coffee, clove, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, tumeric, pepper, curry, and allspice were planted on the forest floor and in places tea did not prosper. Large natural eucalyptus stands were supplemented with additional plantings to supply the

firewood needed for the tea factories and growing population.



In the expansive fields the tea plants seem to flow throughout the valley and cover the whole landscape almost to the top of the surrounding mountain ridges. Only the largest rock bolders and trees remaining in the drainages have escaped the flow of the tea plants. Each individual tea plant stands about 3-4 feet high and has been prunned throughout its life like a bonsai tree. Some plants are 90 years old and still producing a healthy crop of new leaves that are picked every 10 days during the growing season. Some areas are planted with tiny new tea plants, the old ones having been removed once their production finally dwindles. Every scrap of wood is used for firewood for homes or for the tea factories.

'Bonsai' looking tea plants

Cardemom plot under the forest canopy

There are established major and minor ‘picker’ paths criss-crossing each field giving it a mozaic look. As a field is being picked it changes color from the bright light green of new leaves to the dark green of the old leaves.

Tea Factory and School complex

To stabilize the mostly imported workforce, jobs were provided for both the husbands and wives in a family. The men worked in the factory and in the fields planting and cultivating the crops. The women worked as tea pickers. Housing with running water was provided by the plantation owners (electricity was added later). Schools through elementary level were also provided onsite, often located adjacent to the tea factory. Churches and temples were constructed for the Catholic and Hindu followers.

Sometime during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s strong workers unions both on the plantations and in the costal cities gained strength and in 1954 Kerala elected it’s first Communist Party controlled state government. Today many things are price controled not only in Kerala but country wide, and Kerala is the only state with a 100% literacy rate. The health care system is universal and is a model for other areas in the country.



Tea worker's village



Presently the men working on a plantation earn around 200 rupees a day and the women 130 rupees a day. This is adequate for a household, except that it is seasonal. Almost everyone does something else besides working for the plantation. This varies from raising cows, goats, chickens or produce to driving a rickshaw or taxi to moving to a city and sending most of your wages back to your village. (Refer back to Dec 11: Dharavi Slum post for life in the slum) But, for those who manage to live and work locally, the quality of life seems so much better than in the city slums and streets: roomier housing, more sense of community, cleaner environment, fresher air.

Village Hindu Temple



Tea pickers in field



Picker's lunch sacks



Weighing picked tea bags




Carrying firewood to the village




One of the largest corporations in India, Tata, controls many large tea plantations, auto and truck manufacturing, textile factories, real estate development, AND is the largest philanthropic donor year after year. Only 1 Tata heir is still alive and the various businesses have been set up as foundations to benefit Indians. Schools, water projects, environmental initiatives, differentially abled training centers, medical clinics and more are being sponsored by the Tata Foundations. Although like most corporations, Tata has established its huge wealth on the backs of poor, uneducated and powerless labourers, the Tata name is held in high regard by everyone we have talked to. An interesting twist to the ‘robber barons’ story.

Our 2 boy guides with their sister, a friend, and older brother.

One of the striking things about almost every person we meet is their engaging inquisitiveness about us and their ready smiles. Several local people we have meet at the resort and on our walks through the villages have asked us how we like the surrounding land and replied to our comments with: “This land is God’s gift to us.”. Even though they are very poor in terms of capital and possessions, they are well educated, speak and read several languages, have strong family bonds and ties to their surroundings, and are appreciative of the natural beauty and bounties of the land.

God's gift to us......

[Disclaimer: Since we have only seen tea plantations in Kerala which has also been controled by the Communist Party since 1954, we cannot separate these two influences in our comments about tea plantations.]

Jan 19 to 26: First Week at Club Mahindra, Kerala State

All is well with Alison and me. The only little thing that could be improved is internet access. We have to go to the main lobby for WiFi and there are no electrical plugs available so we don’t have much chance (before the battery runs out) for posting to the blog if pictures are involved. I have learned how to reduce the size of the posted pictures to shorten the uploading time during posting. So there is a silver lining…..


But, back to the hill country of Kerala State. It is BEAUTIFUL!!! The heat, humidity, dust and noise of the coast was left behind on our bus trip here. Being in the tea plantation zone, from 1500 to 2500 meters above sealevel, really has its advantages. The local population center, Munnar, is described as ‘scruffy’ with not much to look at , which is true, but the region where it is located is ‘engulfed in a sea of stunning green’, which also is true (per Lonely Planet).

Munnar is large enough to have its own city phone code, but to small to have it’s population listed in our guide book. The resort where we are staying is

about 20 km SE of town located on the side of a mountain looking down at the local dam and reservoir and a valley full of vividly green tea fields. The tea field patterns shift with the sun and clouds and their color changes from a light green to dark green as the tea pickers work across the fields. From our studio apartment’s balcony we look over these changing patterns.

Tea Plantation hill

Above the resort is a picturesque, mostly bald rock mountain with a small natural lake in a saddle that feeds a water falls about 3 km from the resort. Some of the water that comes over the falls is syphoned into water trucks and driven to the resort water tank above the resident buildings where it is purified and becomes our local water supply. The trucks are going from morning to evening to keep the resort from running out of water. What becomes of this as the rivulet dries up in about March, we don’t know. Anyway, at present there is ample water for lovely showers in our snazzy bathroom, with two shower heads!

Tree ant colony!

Our days here have been spent taking a local area bus tour set up by the resort; taking trips using a locally hired taxi and driver-guide; exploring the lake above the resort with a resort guide; walking down to the reservoir through the tea fields and taking a rickshaw back uphill to the resort; or relaxing and watching Bolliwood movies.


Our excursions with the local driver and walking about by ourselves have been good because they are at a more ‘smell the roses’ pace. The resort outings are good to cover longer distances and more stops but, are generally more rushed than we would do by ourselves. (Our own planned trips are also about half the resort price!)

ALL roads in the hill country are twisty, bumpy, and narrow. ALL roads in the hill country have SPECTACULAR views weather it be of tea fields, forests or jungle, small villages, water falls, local people doing daily chores, coriander plots, or of the oncoming bus that only leaves the road shoulder for you to pass.




Flower Garden

 Besides the tea plantations, this area is also known for spices.

We had a private tour of a spice garden, really a coriander plantation in the forest, and saw and learned about all the local spices grown for local consumption and export. Interspersed throughout the coriander plantings were black pepper, cloves, hot peppers, coffee, nutmeg, vanilla, and cinnamon. We were told how each were grown,harvested and used.

Eating Tali Indian style on a banana leaf.

The security treehouse gave us a good overview of the forest. This is manned at night to keep any maurauding animals (elephants, pigs, deer) out of the plantings and provide safety for the guard against predators (tigers, leopards). Sometimes when an errascible elephant roams into the spice plantation, a firecracker is set off to shoo it away. We sometimes hears these random explosions in the evening from our balcony.


The tea plantation and associated villages, schools, and society will be described in more detail in another blog posting. Tea production has affected this area since it was introduced in the 1850s.

Another interesting part of Kerala State life is it’s politics. It is the only state in India ruled by the Communist Party and has been since 1954. Kerala is the only state with virtually 100% literacy. It has a basic but universal health care system. We started learning about this while in Alleppey from Joseph and Sona, and are learning more bits and pieces about Kerala politics as we stay in the state.

On our outings we have seen several wild elephant groups, peacocks, wild pigs, a mongoose, tamed water buffalo, many types of birds, colorful and large insects, a snake, and caged crocodiles. We still are hopeful to see a tiger and a leopard (from a safe distance) during our next week here in the hill country, but have been told that these are very rare sightings indeed.
 



Village shrine below our resort



Tea plantation worker's housing



The boys were our guides, the girls and man were family members who also joined us.



An unexpected pleasure on one of our first days here in the hill country was meeting an Indian family who also were taking the general bus tour. Ruma, Nitin and their 5-year-old daughter Sana immediately started chatting with us, and by the end of the tour we were fast friends. What a delightful family. They live in Mumbai and were vacationing here at Club Mahindra. We arranged to do a walk with them the next day up to the lake above the resort, with a guide, and then to go to Chinnar Wildlife Refuge with them the following day in a hired car. What fun we had. They were very forthright and answered all our questions about

“how things work, and why”, and we had some good laughs exchanging habits and traditions. Sana was such a good sport (imagine spending most of each day with four adults, laughing and chatting about what seemed to her to be nonsensical things). On our final evening we snuck up to the magnificent treehouse at the resort, all set up for a special dinner for two, and sat on the floor having a drink and snacks without disturbing the setting for the later special event. Then we came to our rom and pushed the furniture around and had a good dinner of leftovers and some dishes from room service. We had great fun with them and hope to re-unite with them in Mumbai when we return there in late February.

We are just over halfway through our time here in Munnar, and enjoying it very much. The weather remains cool enough that, in the evening, we are scrambling to put on socks to stay warm, but in the meantime we see in the newspaper that the temperature at the coast is getting up to 32 degrees C (or around 90 F) and it is muggy. We can expect that in Fort Cochi, our next destination. I am trying to memorize how it feels to be cool and dry and trying to finish knitting my pair of socks while the wool still slides through my fingers instead of sticking.