GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Thieves are breaking into tea gardens in India's northeast and plucking leaves, damaging tea bushes and hurting the industry, planters said.
The thieves are believed to be villagers in the tea-growing regions of Assam, famed for its strong malty brew, some of whom struggle to produce saleable tea in their small backyard tea gardens created as part of an employment scheme a decade ago.
"These thieves are now so desperate, they come with bows and arrows, and homemade firearms," said Rupesh Gowala, who leads a tea workers association.
"They clash with our workers whenever they are stopped from stealing. Two of our workers were also killed by them recently."
In Assam's Tinsukia district alone, police say around 500 tea garden burglaries have been reported this year. About 50 were reported in 2007.
A tea worker is trained to only pluck the top two leaves and a bud as the best way of ensuring a steady supply of fresh leaves. The thieves are not so restrained.
They grab leaves haphazardly, leaving swathes of tea bushes out of action for months on end, said Raj Barooah, a leading planter. The stolen leaves reach tea factories damaged and stale, garden owners say.
The increase in low-quality leaves on the market has damaged the region's industry, planters say, who complain their reputations suffer.
India's once prosperous tea industry has been hit by a dip in exports over the years due to declining quality and rising production costs.
The British pioneered tea growing in the 1820s in Assam, which became the world's single largest tea-growing region. Once the largest tea exporter, India now ranks behind Kenya, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Planters and industry officials complained the government has yet to respond to their demand for quality checks, though some factory owners buying loose tea from small growers say they maintain a tight check on quality.
"It is a very alarming trend," said Dipanjol Deka, secretary of the Tea Association of India, in Guwahati - Assam's main city.
"The government should bring in a law to monitor suppliers and the quality of their produce to stop this menace."