Tea, tahr goats and testing times for Kerala, after floods
Hotels and resorts have been largely disappointed owing to the thin tourist arrivals
Thiruvananthapuram: As the world celebrated International Tea Day on Saturday, all was not well in the rolling hills of Kerala’s Munnar.
Famed for its tea plantations, which date back to the British colonial era, the mountain goat species Nilgiri tahrs and a vibrant tourism sector, the region has been going through challenging times of late.
Since devastating floods hit the region in August this year, tourist arrivals have dwindled, putting pressure on the resorts and the numerous downstream sectors serving tourists — including wayside eateries, tourist guides and local taxis.
Sizeable portions of key roads were washed away and, even though the district administration has done good work to repair as much of the roads as possible, it may take a few more months to get Munnar back to what it was befoee the floods.
Hotels and resorts that were expecting visitors to come in droves this season to watch the Nilgiri tahrs and also feast their eyes on the Neelakurinji flowers (Strobilantes kunthiana) that blooms only once in 12 years have been largely disappointed owing to the thin tourist arrivals.
Meanwhile tea plantations have long been the mainstay of Munnar — even before tourism made an impact in the region — but the sector has been affected by stagnant prices.
Says Anil George Joseph, vice-president of the tea division of Harrisons Malayalam, which owns hundreds of hectares of tea plantations in Munnar: “South Indian tea prices have hovered around Rs90-Rs105 per kg [Dh4.59-Dh5.36] for the last three years. The price stagnation has to be seen against the backdrop of increased input costs”.
Adding to Munnar’s challenge is the impact of global warming, which has a direct impact on not only the tea plantations, but also the flora and fauna of the locality including the tahrs, all of which will adversely affect the tourism sector and in turn the livelihoods of the local community.
Ironically, a healthy tourism sector is seen as the right prescription to solve Munnar’s troubles because that will help protect the environment and thereby help the tea plantation sector, too.