“Turning ‘green Deserts’ into natural Ecosystems”: A Response

I, as a retired tea planter, was surprised at the Heading of this particular article. Sanjeewa Chamikara tells his readers how growing tea started in 1867 by James Taylor in Loolkandura in the Kandy District. All this is correct.

First and foremost, I must say our tea plantations are the best in the world, and the tea produced from these Estates is also the best in the world. What does Sanjeewa Chamikara want? Does he want our tea Plantations to be put back into jungles so that wildlife can return and reoccupy them? As a Sinhalese saying goes, is it ‘Don’ or ‘Simon’ – not Don Simon. There is currently no clearing of jungles to plant tea. The old tea in fields that give low crops are uprooted, rehabilitated for two years and replanted with Vegetative Propagated high-yielding tea plants that will give higher yields. All this is done with the Tea Research Institute’s advice and supervision. The present tea Estates do not cultivate Cinnamon, Coffee,

Cardamom, Arecanuts, Coconuts, jackfruits, and Bananas in the same tea field. This type of cultivation is done by villagers who own small tea Plantations. Further, there are no slave-like labour conditions on estates. They are workers who reside on estates and go for work at given times and return from work at given times, and are well looked after.

Leslie Abeyasekera Colombo 06