DOOARS - GEOGRAPHY

News:  Death and distress in Bengal’s Dooars tea gardens

 

What's in the news?

       This year marks 150 years of tea production in the Dooars area, as the first tea plantations in the region were set up in 1874, a few decades after Darjeeling.

 

Key takeaways:

       As per the Paschim Banga Cha Majoor Samity (PBCMS), a trade union representing tea estate workers, of the 150 big tea gardens, 18 are closed.

 

Dooars:

       They are the alluvial floodplains in northeastern India that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and Brahmaputra plain.

 

Location:

       This region is about 30 km wide and stretches over about 350 km from the Teesta River in West Bengal to the Dhansiri River in Assam.

       The region forms the gateway to Bhutan, Sikkim and Eastern Nepal.

       There are 18 passages or gateways between the hills in Bhutan and the plains in India.

       It is part of the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion

 

Types of Dooars:

       The Dooars region is divided by the Sankosh River into Eastern and Western Dooars, consisting of an area of 880 sq.km .

       The Western Dooars are also known as the Bengal Dooars, and the Eastern Dooars also as the Assam Dooars.

 

Significance of Dooars:

       The deep, well drained and fertile soil rich in the humus of the Dooars has been used for the development of the tea plantations.

       The main industry of the Dooars region is the tea industry. Thousands of people are engaged in the tea estates and factories.