The grim attire which every tea garden in Darjeeling had worn was relieved today with some amount of rainfall. Apart from the tea industry’s worried look, each home in Darjeeling was suffering from acute water crisis.

All the homes in Darjeeling get its water supply from the reservoirs situated in Senchel, 10 km away from Darjeeling. Two reservoirs namely the North and South were almost empty and the natural resources or springs which fed it had begun to dry up due to insufficient rainfall. The South reservoir had almost dried up and the North only had about 8.7 feet of water when the actual figure of about 12 feet is necessary for adequate supply.

The Darjeeling Municipality was supplying water every 15-20 days to sustain the adverse situation. It had slowly compelled the residents to buy water brought from far away natural spring resources by tankers.

Darjeeling seemed clad in dust and the prevailing dry condition resembled the polluted Indian plains. I had chapped skin and had to use moisturizers to keep it going smooth

Hope today’s rain will solve the problem for a while, but we need more rain.

Darjeeling got the rain – what about Darjeeling tea production now?
Definitely, the production quantity of Darjeeling will be low when we take in consideration of the time period of each tea season. If the rain had occurred during the winter season then there would be more time and hence more production of teas before the “banji” period entered. Now there is less time for bulk tea production, but this does not mean low quality.

According to Mr. S. Roy (Manager, Arya Tea Estate) and Mr. Sagar Rawat (Manager, Goomtee Tea Estate) – The production condition is at its peak with perfect soil and atmospheric temperatures, humidity, sunlight etc. and the only needed ingredient needed was water (rain). Now since all the needed things are in place, they are of the view that they will have top quality First Flush teas, though the production is going to be low.

It rained today – all the tea gardens which received the holy sprinkle are going to do “full flushing” from Monday or Tuesday.

In short - Now the garden spirits are high though, Darjeeling Tea production will be low, but quality wise it will be high - After all Darjeeling Tea is not quantity but quality.