Chennai: One among the most beautiful and serene hill stations that you will come across in the southern part of India is Coonoor, where apart from loads of attractions and gorgeous sites, the Guernsey Tea Factory is one of the most sought after places to visit.
A cup of deliciously fragrant and exquisitely aromatic morning tea directly from the Nilgiris may be enough to energize you for the rest of the long day but what about the indigenous farmers who actually produce it? The beverage may tickle the taste buds of millions but plantation workers still receive negligible part of the total profit. 

In order to enhance the income of tea growers, especially the pastoral Toda tribe who are majorly engaged as labourers in the tea estates and factories, IAS officer Supriya Sahu has brought in some unique initiatives to transform the workings of cooperatives and increase their brand recognition.

Currently posted as Principal Secretary-cum-Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Small Tea Growers’ Industrial Cooperative Tea Factories’ Federation Limited (INDCOSERVE) in Coonoor, Sahu started a unique initiative called 'Tea Vandis' last December where in the produce is marketed by the Toda tribes themselves and providing them with livelihood opportunities in addition.

Under this initiative, INDCOSERVE, an apex body of 16 industrial cooperative tea factories in the Nilgiris, provides a food truck to the Toda tribal communities. Currently, four 'Vandis' are operational at different vantage points in Ooty district.

“The green harvest in the backdrop of stunning natural beauty. Sacks loaded with fresh green tea leaves ready for transportation to factories. As the morning fades into evening we thank our tea farmers for their hard work enabling us to bring that refreshing Chai/Tea to millions,” the officer said in a tweet.

Sahu says further that given the popularity of the district with tourists from India and abroad, the business of tea and food being sold through mobile vans is certainly bound to create a niche place for itself.

In order to minimize the harmful effects of tea manufacturing, ecological restoration works and paintings are being carried out on the premises of INDCOSERVE tea factories presently. Sahu added that the process of manufacturing tea was not always sustainable and environment-friendly owing to the burning of large quantities of wood, which also generated ash.

The INDCO tea houses would be opened in renovated factories that have been upgraded with state-of-the-art machinery to both increase tea output and decrease negative footprint on the environment. Tourists would be invited to the factory to see the rich biodiversity in the area, and an information centre would be set up to brief people on the local environment.

Nearly 30,000 small tea growers are likely to benefit from the initiative. It is said that the cooperative also started the practice of fixing in advance the green tea leaf prices grown by the small tea growers. Tea farmers received an all time high price for green leaves in August 2020. /BI/