Climate change sparks tension in India's tea gardens

Usha Ghatowar smiles wryly when asked about the pay she earns picking leaves at a colonial-era tea garden in Assam.

"Do you think Rs 3,000 are enough when your monthly expenses can be double that?" she mumbles, as she puts on her "jaapi" hat of woven bamboo and palm leaves and takes a sip of tea from a steel mug.

As the women workers around Ghatowar nod in agreement the heavens open - it has started raining heavily in recent days after three largely dry months.

Unrest is brewing among Assam's so-called Tea Tribes, whose forefathers were brought here by British planters from neighbouring Bihar and Odisha more than a century ago, as changing weather patterns upset the economics of the industry.

Scientists say climate change is to blame for uneven rainfall that is cutting yields and lifting costs for tea firms such as McLeod Russel , Tata Global Beverages and Jay Shree Tea.

While rainfall has declined and become concentrated, temperatures have risen - ideal conditions for pests like looper caterpillar and tea mosquito to infest the light green tea shoots just before they are ready to be plucked for processing.

Use of pesticides and fertilisers has nearly doubled as a result in Assam's 800 big tea plantations, known as gardens, and the rising costs are making Indian tea less competitive.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, whose Congress party was routed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 general election, has sided with the workers ahead of state polls due early next year.