Many tea estates are found in close proximity to areas of natural beauty that support a wide range of wildlife including ‘exotic’ animal species.
This means that farming practices used for tea cultivation, such as applying agrochemicals and building drainage ditches have the potential to impact adversely on the immediate environment, and wildlife in particular.
It also means that tea workers are regularly exposed to wild animals. In the sub-continent relationships with Asian Elephants are fraught with difficulty.
In the central highlands of Sri Lanka tea workers from three estates commonly encounter elephants, while in Assam producers near the Dehing Forests are particularly affected.
The issue
When elephants enter estates they cause significant chaos. Damage to crops, food storage and property, injuries to workers and several accidental deaths means that whole communities live in fear of the elephants.
In retaliation, elephants are often scared off using fire crackers, are badly injured or in worst case scenarios killed.
Protecting endangered elephants
In 2010 ETP teamed up with the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) and ran two workshops to raise awareness on the importance of protecting wildlife and showing producers and workers ways to live more harmoniously with elephants.
As well as introducing the environmental provisions of the ETP Global Standard (823.15 kB), producers were given practical advice on minimising encounters and therefore reducing the risk to themselves. This included:
- Early-warning trip wire systems
- Ways to react when confronted by elephants
- The need to change patterns of food and grain storage to protect buildings
- Advice on insurance schemes for property and crops
NCF also explained that rather than compounding matters by disrupting the elephants’ basic habits, that tea estates could actually play a crucial role in preserving the population by:
- Keeping traditional migratory routes/corridors clear from obstruction
- Allowing them to roam freely
- Leaving natural vegetation for them to forage
