INTRODUCTION The foothills of the Himalayas covering the districts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri of West Bengal have come to occupy a significant position in the tea map of India. The tea growing areas of the district of Jalpaiguri is popularly known as Dooars. The present revenue district of Jalpaiguri was formed on 1st January 1869 by the amalgamation of Western Do oars district and Jalpaiguri subdivision of Rang pur district. The district has a district ecological setting. The avarage annual rainfall is more than 30cm but bulk of it i.e. about 90% is received between April and September. Having administrative head quarters the district has a fairly good communication network with the rest of North East India. The study area comprises Banarhat and,Nagrakata police stations of Jalpaiguri district in \!Vest Bengal of India. (Fig;_1). -lfis als'lflfes irl" the Hirr1alay~m foothills that is the lap of the Butan Himalaya.(Fig- 2). There are twenty four teagardens in Banarhat policestations and.fifteen teagardens in Nagrakata police station in 1981 census. (Fig 1.3). In 1991 census the Jaldhaka teagarden is located in Banarhat police station. The study area bounded by Bhutan on the north Birpara police station on Easf', -".-­ Dhupguri Police station on the south and Moynaguri and Mettially Polici stations on , the West. ' The geographical location of the district is from 26°40'N to 27°00' North and 88°49' E to 89°06' East. (Fig. 3). The teagardens covered 36% of the total area and shares nearly 58% of the total population of the study area. The population of the study area is spread over in two police stations with rural ubban break up. The study area has only one town namely Gairakata(N.M.) and its population in 5955, it is in Banarhat Police station. ·The Banarhat police stations has an area of399 km and population of 179685(census 1991) and the Nagrakata Police station has an area of 284 km and population of 81 ,·364. (Census, 1991). The tea industry is a large agrobased and labour intensive industry. It largely depends on manual labour than technological inputs. Crop gwoth and production depend on the interaction of a biological system which is the planta more often a I population of plants and the physical environment in which the plant grows. The total growth and production are in fact derived from the environment through the special mechanism and properties possessed by the biological system. (William and Joseph 1976). [xvi] LOCATION MAP [INDIA I POLl Cc:"" STATION(P.S.) A 1. RAJGANJ $I 2- MAL LPAIGURI 01 ST • I 3·4s.MAVNAGuR~ MITIAllJALPAIGURI J 6·NAGRAKAT, ,."\ 8 " lJ T A N 78.DHUBGU . BAN ARHAT Rl "\~\"'~\.. \~ ~/\ . ......,....(~· •• g.BIRPARA Q\c:, ) ~ ./ \ 4 .•6 W ·-'"'1"'--..__........ Q.FALAKAT".T . ( 2 / 11. MADARIH Q \l'- ~ (.~-- ·--..( 2 ~ ~-~'-·---"r 9 ('-J ( . ·"-'"\..~ 12. KALCH IN I . \. I J . ~ . ( 11 I 12 \.. '"' 3.KUMARGRAM _.:>( 1 s\l. ~· . '8l/'v''/..,·\ 10 {/ • .-J/~.} · · . ·!'! I 13 5~), 14.AliPURDUAR· ~ i \.... _/ '-. B ·-, ) . '\..~/ · , ., • j \ 5 ·..l.. \ 14 \ .• ( . '-· ~ ( ~.f---r ·~ ...~......"'.~"'-.) ;,...l C 0 C H B I H V'v·.r ..,8 "."\_. (13 . ( . c T A R ..q1- '"t. '<.....Y t· 1 R I G'(..q() l • ~- D I 5 ~& ~- ~ e,JJ Study Area District Boundary Pol1ce. s tation Boundary Fig. 1 ·· LOCATIONJ~UID~~~~~~~~~I~T~S~S~U~BB~O~U~N=D~IN(G~S MAP -OF SIUDY AREA _AND 'Cow M A 2,·,o·~ I ~...J \ . ul a: <{ 0 .... u 12 18 Krn 5 6~~0~~6~~- s C A L E 1. Nagrakata 2.. Binaguri "3 . Kolimpang l •. Jalpaig~ri s. Siligur1 I'Jagrakala P.s·[ I 6. Banarnat I. Banarhat P.s . Fig. 11 . LOCATION OF TEA GARDENS OF BANARHAT AND NAGRAKATA P. S. Bonorhot Nomr of the Teo garden 1. Ambori w 2. Bonorhot 3. Binoguri 4 - Chomur chi Jl 5- Chunobhoti ~ 6 . Drbporo vr- l'· ~ 7. Diona DIS"t . ELING • ' 11 .'\ 8 · Go ir koto ~~j -1 .1 9. Grndroporo ·r . f---9------j· --s­ 10-Nrw Dooars 11 . Holdibori j \~~; --~ --- ~ --j T 12 .1\olobor i 13. Korbolo ~ \ .. ~ 15 I '·- v /·~ 14. Ko t hotguri / . I ~~/ ) ( I., • I \, _-</ 1 ~ 1 --, I I ' / 1 ~t 15 . Lokshmikonto / 'J, I 112 I }-•r / I . 16. Lokshmiporo { l 14 'r--1 I I I 1 I f • I 1 1,.,161 3 1 1 . -11 17. Moroghot 1 I ~ I [,/ ' -,J I I I 4 / J 1• 18. Mag a I kat a ( • \ / 1 / 13 r / / / . '--'' 19. Palashpor i 1 I r', ..., I 1 1 5 -"'• . ,, 2 I ., I I I . r-r_)- / 20.Redbork 21 . Ri obo r1 \ '0.. I '~---+"' /1 I / I I 4 • 1 22 . Surendronogo r oq 7 /22 r I ' I \ f r",-~ / . 1 23. Telepoo a I I / . '-.__.....· ,/ <.~ ..../ 1 r ........ _ 1_· l~rJ_____ / 20 • 1 1 5 '- 24. Totoporo =~ I P.S. NAGRAKATA 7 1 _--,I _ _.l 1 _c._ .J-· /) 7 T1o ---r--~ P. S.Nogrokoto '-t .-· /t.....t-----1 r--- ~ ::1 i r 1- -- ~-- I_ I 14 . • Nome of the Teo garden vi i f I 16 1'19 --t:·,------l' 1. Bomondongo 1 Tondoo a: ( ; / f_.L ____ j'----f-~1__-(· ~ : ~:~rgoantpur ) 1 . t-\ L- 1 9 I 2 / 13 oot 4. Chengmori - · /1 { r"' / 124 }. I I } . ~ 5· / I I 1 \ 1 - Dhoronipur / 1 1 .l. / 1 . ,--/ I "';, I I y.- -~------ . ·- .\...-.-. r /" I 1 1 1 18 L, 1 7 oot 6· Ghotio 2 1 1 1 17 1 r \ /" '---1 1 1 1 1 a. 7. Grossmor• • I -~ I j ' /.o \ / ( 1! - - t, / 1-, ----rJ 1 llc 8 . Hilla 3 ·.s ) I 1 .). 'J I i 9 . Hope 1 1 1-.., i...'- \,, (. 1 11 ---/'1, '· Ill 10 · Joldhoko Altodongo 1 1 1 ;.. "\ ' 1 P. S.BANARHAT I / I f vi 11 - Jiti 1-- . ) )'-.1 [ ( '---) a: 12 . Kurt i .., V "-110 / . 1---.J, ~ 13 · Lookson G' I ' . I 1 23 ) 14 . Nogrokoto 1 C.. ·~"(.- . /"~ _ ) t------j.- . -~ 15 . Noyosoyl ee i) . ( , . ..._-../'-..J' I B I . .... / ! l / \ ~ \ / ~ - ...r · / ':i ..,*""' / ?. ..__ ....._ rl 15 ~ . I ,,_) · Q " . ...) l I \ 4.'1" -·- INTERNATIONAL P. S. D (_) {. \ ). BOUNDARY H ...,.., \ U P G U R I ....... ."\.-10 DISTRICT BOUNDARY 26' 40'N -·- P.S. BOUNDARY 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Kms !.'1----.., TEA GARDEN /VILLAGE I SOURCE : Census 1981 I . BOUNDARY . ~ 01 SCALE "' Fig . Ill The dimensions of the development of the teagardens and tea industry must be related to maintaining a balance between physical and economical environments of the area . THE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR INDIA Tea industry requires creation of strong and healthy production base to meet the demand for rapidly rising internal consumption commensurate with the increase in population and per capita consumption as well as the demand for export. So , to have a bright future of tea the cloax of complacency must be stripped off and harder work must be down with extra alertness for a very prosperous era of Tea. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The main objectives of the study are : (i) To study the physical aspects like geology, relief, drainage, climate, soil and vegetation of the Nagrakata and Banarhat Police Stations and their interrelation for assessing the major problems like flood, drought, siltation soil erosion and diposition and its effects in tea plantations. (ii) To study the history of tea cultivation and back ground of the tea garden. (iii) To study the landuse pattern ofteagarden and to study the growth and development of tea gardens and tea industry. (iv) To study the processing, marketing of tea industry and its consumption to the national and International market. (v) To evaluate the demographic set up like distribution of population, literacy rate and occupational pattern of the people, which are greatly attributed to the tea plantation as it is large agrobased and labour intensive industry. It largely depends on manual labour than technological input. (vi) To study the availability and accessibility of the existing socio-economic functions like education, health, marketing electricity, water supply etc. which contribute much for the all round development of tea industry. (vii) To identify the problems and associated constrains in teagardens and tea industry. (viii) And finally to suggested a strategy for the development of teagardens and tea industry and the socio-economic conditions of the people. [xvii] SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The tea industry is one of the organised industries in India. There are two main tea growin areas : (i) The Southern States like Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka and (ii) The North Eastern states like Sikkim, Assam and West Bengal. The pattern of ownership and management of tea plantation varies from the smaller privately owned Estates to the larger Agency Houses. The later in particular are efficiently run and have the organised and trained management to properly carry out whatever programmes of activities they under take. Plantation by their very nature are situated in remote and hilly areas. They are comparatively isolated and far from the amenities which cities provide with the result that each is a relatively closed, self contained c ommu n i~ y with a strongly institutional and social structures. Most of the tea gardens workers are decendents of immigrants from other parts of the country and reside on the plantation in which they work and where their children would eventually seek employment. The plantation workers for their dependents seldom leave the tea-gardens life. Rapid population growth has been a major socio-economic problem to the community and Tea Estate managements. The quality and quantity of production depends on several geoclimatic and management factors. But man has no control over nature.