In some good news for small tea gardens, the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government has issued two notifications, paving the way for the legalization of about 43,000 small tea plantations, Indian media reported on Wednesday.
The plantations emerged illegally on private and government lands in northern Bengal between 2001 and 2017.
What is a Small Tea Garden?
Any tea garden land below or equal to 10.12 hectares (25 acres) is considered a small grower in India.
In northern Bengal, there are about two million people associated directly or indirectly with tea gardens.
In March, small tea growers in northern Bengal appealed to the state government, requesting that the authorities initiate regularization of their lands.
Big Win for Small Tea Growers
"We thank the state chief and the government for addressing a longstanding demand. The regularization of small plantations will help the growers avail themselves of assistance and benefits under various central and state schemes," said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Associations (CISTA).
One of the notifications, issued last week, says tea plantations set up on private land between June 30, 2001 and November 7, 2017 will have to pay INR 25,000 ($305) per hectare for regularization.
The other notification by the state government says that the small tea plantations on state government land can be regularized by paying a "salami" of INR 50,000 ($610) per hectare.
"Salami" is a payment by the tenant as a present or as a price for parting by the landlord with his rights under the lease of a holding.
The growers will also have to pay annual rent and will get the land on lease for 30 years.