Valparai going down the hill

Valparai: Though many people in Tamil Nadu have heard of Valparai, few know where exactly it is located. For those who have heard of it, Valparai is another hill station in the state, though not as well known as Kodaikanal and Yergaud. Located at 3,500 feet above sea level, Valparai has a population of 94,000.

But when India Today published excerpts from the Guide to Urban Markets, a survey by ad agency R K Swamy, ranking Valparai district as the fourth richest taluka in terms of per capita income (Rs. 23,772) after Chandigarh, Panaji and Delhi and ahead of Greater Mumbai, Pune and Chennai, it certainly attracted attention.

The news report rattled many in the small hill town. The local tea estate labour unions were caught on the back foot as the companies citing the survey, stiffened their negotiation stance to resist wage increases. Branch managers of nationalised banks at the sleepy hill station began receiving calls from their head offices pressing them to double their efforts to increase business.

“Ours is a special-grade town panchayat,” says K Saleem, executive officer. According to him the panchayat’s total income including the state government grant is around Rs3.70 crore. The revenue from property / profession / water tax, rent from shopping complex and others is over Rs1 crore. Last fiscal, its total expenditure was Rs2.87 crore. Undeniably the town panchayat is one the richest in the state.

Located in the scenic Anamalai mountain range the entire Valparai taluk measures 54,190.43 acre (217.81 sq. km). From Coimbatore the hill town is a three-and-half hour, 104km drive.

However, the drive through the mountain forest range, negotiating forty hairpin bends, is invigorating and laced with the fragrance of wildflowers.

Historically speaking, Anamalai is one of younger plantation districts in southern India. The Carnatic Coffee Company on the eastern slopes of the Anamalai range developed the first plantation in 1864.

The town’s economy revolves almost entirely the local tea industry and its 55,000 workers. The total acreage under the plantations is around 32,825 hectares (tea: 25,254 hectares coffee 4,517 hectares, cardamom 2,906.75 hectares, and cinchona, rubber and other incidental crops being grown on the remaining land).

The majority of the 41 estates are owned by eight corporates — Jay Shree Tea & Industries Limited, Tata Tea Limited, Hindustan Lever Limited, Parry Agro Limited, Bombay Burmah Trading Company, The Peria Karamalai Tea and Produce Company Limited, Wood Brayer Tea Industries Limited and NEPC Agro Foods Limited.

“When I came here, the radio was the only entertainment. And one had to order a week in advance to get a cauliflower,” reminisces D P Maheshwari, president, Jay Shree Tea & Industries Limited who is also the president of Anamalai Planters’ Association.

But times changed quickly. Even before Coimbatore got is cable TV service, Valparai got its own. The operator directly relays the town temple festival and other major local programmes on the local cable channel V TV.

This month a two-wheeler rally is being held at Valparai. It is also said that Valparai ranks ahead of several cities in terms of vehicle population vis a vis the population.

The small town having around 25, 000 households boasts two gas agencies (total connections 6,600), two cyber cafes, one computer education centre and 2,215 landline telephone connections. There are around 180 auto rickshaws and 70 cabs.

Trouble brewing

Does all this mean that Valparai is really shining? “Not really,” says R Soundaraj, reporter, Kovai Malai Murasu and adds, “We are really baffled by the ad agency’s survey.”

Two years back it was certainly a prosperous town. No longer. At least, that is the common refrain of its residents. Says R Alagiri, cable operator, “I visit the homes of my subscribers every month. I won’t say that their financial position is comfortable. My subscriptions outstanding are going up.”

Adds Shaji George, managing director, Green Hill Hotel P Ltd, “The number of visitors from pesticide and fertiliser companies to the tea estates have come down, reducing the hotel occupancy rates. People have reduced dining out, resulting in lower footfalls to my restaurant.”

According to the manager of one nationalised bank, many savings account-holders are closing their accounts and moving out of this scenic town. “During the last one year alone, nearly 400 accounts were closed. Business is not growing.”

When the tea market — domestic and exports — faced little or no competition, permanent labourers were paid a daily wage of Rs76. The company-owned estates rewarded the workers with bonus, overtime and also used to hire additional hands, usually from the families of the permanent workers, as casual labourers.

With the tea companies providing free water, housing, medical facilities, the labourers had sufficient disposable income to sustain the fourteen liquor shops, before they were taken over by the state government recently.

With companies like Jay Shree Tea providing consumer durable like TVs, mixies, and PVC furniture for their workers at zero-interest loans, the bug of consumerism also bit workers.

But the good times didn’t last long. “The break up of the erstwhile Soviet Union reduced tea exports. Further, the advent of WTO and globalisation has created difficulties for the domestic tea industry. While export markets were gobbled up by Kenya and Sri Lanka, the domestic market was not growing as much as the tea manufacturers would have liked,” remarks Maheshwari.

“Our production cost is high. Other countries do not offer such worker benefits. The wages in South Indian tea estates are generally high,” adds H C Malpani, group manager, The Peria Karamalai Tea and Produce Company. According to industry sources, some companies like NEPC Agro just trade in tea leaves instead of converting them into tea.

Nature, too, lent a hand in the decline of the area’s tea-dependant economy, when rains started playing truant. Thanks to extensive deforestation, places like Chinnakallar near Valparai, which used to boast the highest rainfall after Cherapunjee in Assam, no longer enjoy bountiful rains.

With the sun shining bright, the production of tea started going down, thereby pulling down the town’s economy. “For a continuous period of 140 days we didn’t get sufficient rains, resulting in the tea bushes drying up. Production during the first four months of this calendar year has come down by 55 per cent,” bemoans Maheshwari.

At 2,800kg per-acre, the tea estates of Valparai have the highest productivity in the country. As tea sales slowed, tea companies were forced to cut the wages of their permanent workers by Rs4 to Rs72 per day.

Going downhill

The average price realisation of tea has fallen from Rs71 per kg in 1998 to Rs.41. Add to it the free housing, children’s education, water and the medical facilites that we provide, the per day wage would amount to around Rs.105,” he says. He adds that there is no unemployment in Valparai.

But as Alagiri, the cable operator points out, only the organised-sector workers have an annual family income of Rs.24, 000 or more. “In the unorganised trading sector, the annual income is much lower,” he explains.

According to an estate worker, labourers often land in debt because of the high cost of higher education, which they incur on their children. Unlike the earlier generations, today’s labourers have realised the importance of education. However, since Valpari does not have a college, they have to send their children to Pollachi or Coimbatore, incurring expenses, on not just fees and books, but on personal expenses, food and hostel accommodation, as well.

Even otherwise, increasing costs have often forced workers to borrow from loan sharks, only to find themselves in a debt trap. Though the number of pawnbrokers has come down substantially, say the locals, the small town still has around 300 pawnshops. Interestingly, the principal amount and the huge interest don’t stay in Valparai; it finds its way to Coimbatore and Pollachi in the plains.

When the workers find handling the sharks difficult, they resign and settle their debts with their provident fund or gratuity and move down to the plains. Says the town panchayat chairman, Selvi Vijayarajan, “The workers’ attitude is slowly changing for the better now. There are two self-help groups that is mobilising the women to save.”

Without suitable employment opportunities, Valparai has been losing its college-educated young to the hosiery factories of Tirupur, which pay higher wages. Even those who could have stayed back prefer to move out since the town lacks even normal recreational facilities. “Apart from tea, there is nothing here to spend on. The town doesn’t even have a theatre,” says a trader.

“A family of four where the husband and wife earn around Rs.4, 000 can comfortably save around Rs.1, 000 per month,” says K Velusamy an estate labourer.

Difficult times are ahead for the estate workers. According to industry sources, one tea company is now conditioning its workers to accept a further wage cut. However, the total tea export from South India during the first two months, this year, has gone up by 4.8 million ton to 14.1 million ton.

From tea to tourism economy

With the tea industry bringing nothing much to cheer about, the local community wears a worried look.

They yearn for the Tamil Nadu government to act fast to make the town into an active tourist spot, which could help transform the local economy from being dependant on tea, which seems to be dying out, to a vibrant tourism economy.

A proposal to build a new road to Pollachi through reserved forest areas has been shot down by the forest department, as it would affect the ecological balance.

Even Valparai panchayat chairman, Selvi Vijayarajan, is not in favour of the road project. “The road may reduce the travel distance and time between Valparai and Pollachi but does not offer as much sightseeing potential. In the long term, the existing route would fall under disuse and tourists will lost interest in Valparai,” she warns.

The development of Valparai as a vibrant tourist destination is also constricted by absence of free hold land for building hotels and other support infrastructure as the mountains are owned / leased by the tea companies and a good part of the land has been declared a forest reserve. Further, most of the scenic spots and waterfalls are located inside the estates.

While that is for the future, the way for the local populace of Valparai seems to be going
downhill — towards the plains.