Some 35 tea estates in Sylhet Division are operating without any official lease agreement of the lands.
There are 164 tea estates in Bangladesh. Besides, about seven tea estates of Sylhet district, including the country’s first tea estate – Malnichhara, run without rescheduling the lease period..
Tarapur, Dalia, Khadim Nagar, Borojan, Shreepur, Dalu Chhara, Khan, Fotehpur, Zaflong and Dona tea estates are the legal entities in Sylhet district. Seven renowned tea estates, including Lakkatura and Malnichhara, were running although the deadline has expired.
The owner of Tarapur, Malnichhara and others tea estates, Ragib Ali, told that the tea estate owners were compelled to do that because of red- tapism of the government. If the government comes forward to boost the tea industry, the owners would welcome it and they are bound to abide by all rules and regulations, he added.
Tea Board Chairman Major General Mahbubul Alam said, production of tea was 33.50 million kg in 1976, out of which only 3.08 million kg was for internal consumption and the rest 30.42 million kg was exported. Thereafter, internal consumption started increasing every year and exports began declining. Finally, in 2012 the internal consumption was 63.28 million kg and exports dropped to about 15 million kg. It seems internal consumption is increasing by about 1.50 million kg every year on an average. ‘Our country should achieve adequate growth of tea production to avoid import from other countries,’ he said.
The British started commercial planting here more than 160 years back. The first commercial plantation was at Malnicherra Tea Estate near Sylhet town in 1854. However, the first experimental tea cultivation in the Indian sub-continent was in 1840 in and around Chittagong Club.
