Oldest tea scientist puts onus of dregs on industry
PULLOCK DUTTA
Guwahati, April 23: If Assam tea is losing its space in the international market, none but the industry is to blame for it. And if planters still do not learn from their historical blunder, the future of Assam tea is, indeed, very dark, warned the oldest surviving tea scientist in the country.
Dina Nath Barua, who at 95 claims to be the oldest surviving tea scientist in the world, told The Telegraph over phone from his Jorhat residence that the Assam tea industry has made one of the biggest blunders by not undertaking a scientific approach.
Barua, who was among the first batch of scientists to release tea clones at the Tocklai Tea Research Station in Jorhat in 1949, said the industry had refused to use those then. As a result, the quality of Assam tea deteriorated over the years. Tocklai had released three sets of clones that year.
“We had then suggested that at least two per cent of the total cultivation area in a tea estate should carry out plantations with these clones every year but the industry did not listen to us. And they have not done so in the last 50 years,” he said, adding that if planters did not start using tea clones, the future of Assam tea was very dark.
Barua said Kenyan and Sri Lankan tea had scripted a success story because these countries had carried out plantations from clones.
“These countries did take a few clones from us in the beginning but later on they came up with their own clones suitable for those countries.”
He, however, applauded small tea growers in Assam for doing a tremendous job.
“A large number of small tea growers is using clones to carry out plantations and the tea leaf of these gardens is perfect to produce quality tea. These small growers should be provided proper training in plucking of leaf which is very important for quality production,” he said.
Barua will be honoured during Tocklai’s centenary celebrations, scheduled to start at Tocklai in Jorhat on May 3. Indeed, if Bisa Nong Gaum, chief of the Singpho community, is credited with helping Robert Bruce discover tea in the state in 1823, it was Barua who added value over the years by pioneering research on Assam tea.
“Barua’s contribution towards tea research probably has no parallel. To felicitate this eminent tea scientist at the centenary celebrations of the oldest and the biggest tea research station in the world would be befitting,” Tocklai director Mridul Hazarika told The Telegraph today.
The second edition of Barua’s book, Science and Practices in Tea Culture, will also be released at the inaugural function of the centenary celebrations.
Barua, who retired as the deputy director of Tocklai in 1973, had joined the research station as a senior scientific assistant in 1939 when P.H. Carpenter was the director. He was the first to receive the lifetime achievement award of the Tea Board of India. Barua is still the adviser to the director of Tocklai.
Hazarika said the inaugural function of the centenary celebrations would be marked with a procession taken out from the heart of Jorhat town, where the institute is located. Apart from the daylong programme at Tocklai on the inaugural day, a seminar will also be held in Delhi on May 10.
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