A tradition still going strong

In the rolling hills of Sylhet region tea is grown in large estates. About 90 percent of the 166 tea estates of Bangladesh are in this region. Tea is grown on 47,781 hectares of land in Bangladesh and most tea estates had been established in the British era. Decades have gone by but the process has hardly changed. Workers in those estates pluck the young leaves, usually between May and October, and take those to the factories there. The leaves are then sorted, processed and packed for marketing. While consumers buy 400gm of tea at shops for Tk 150 give or take, the workers of the estates are often poorly paid.

Photo: Sheikh Nasir