AGARTALA, May 11 (TIWN): Giving a sigh of relief to the tea planters, since last few days in various parts of the state. Though the downpour was accompanied with gusty winds damaging properties, it brought smiles on the face of the farmers of the region especially the tea growers.

Due to the prolonged drought-like situation in the region, the tea estates and small tea gardens had been suffering with poor cropping. Along with the tea growers and manufacturers, the tea labourers of the area were also affected by the situation.

The shower which came as relief after a long dry spell later turned torrential. The dried up hilly streams become alive after the rain. Heavy rainfall has dampened the cropland and made it favourable for cultivation activities. The tea industry in the region was affected by the absence of rainfall since March .The plants were in the grip of pest attacks and the plucking had to be stopped.

“Spraying water through irrigation can never meet the gap caused by lack of rainfall. Also, there are several small tea plantations where growers cannot provide water through irrigation. Last week rain would help the tea industry as a whole. We hope fresh leaves would come up because of a change in the weather. Pests had destroyed tealeaves because of the scorching heat and the rain will help reduce such attacks,” said Rakhal Deb, secretary of Durgabari tea garden co- operative society.     .

A planter said tea cultivation had been hit in the past one month because of the dry spell. “We had to stop plucking because of rise in temperature and absence of rainfall since March 20. The dry spell occurred ahead of the second flush, which is known to be of excellent quality and fetch good prices. Last week rainfall has brought some respite to the industry. We look forward for more rainfall in the coming days as there are forecasts of thundershower by the India Meteorological Department,” said a planter.