On 22Nov2015, I made a trip to Sittong in Kurseong subdivison (Darjeeling dist) to check out some landslides in that area. It was a day long trip and I visited some prominent landslides while enroute to the little hamlet and spent much of my day investigating the huge landslide in Sittong 3.
I also talked with some locals about the landslide situation there but while talking about their livelihoods they said oranges which were their main source of livelihood in Sittong were almost gone.
Of course, everyone here knows that oranges from Sittong once flooded the markets in Kalimpong and those along National Highway10 at Lohapul.
What the people I talked to feared most, was that along with oranges, their livelihoods for generations would also disappear.
They were correct.
Oranges as a cash crop in the Darjeeling-Kalimpong region is history today.
This news was brought out in the Telegraph on 25Nov2015 (see below) and I know that it was shown to a very high level official from the Govt of W Bengal who was visiting Kalimpong that day.
Therefore, I was surprised to read yesterday, another article by Vivek on 'Orange crisis in the hills' (below).
So 4 years later, while politicians still bicker and blame each other, the Darjeeling hills - once one of the 'best orange growing zones' in the country, is today a graveyard for orange orchards with the livelihoods of thousands destroyed and it is certainly NOT due to aging trees and orchards alone.
I visited some orchards in Bhalukhop bustee (village), Kalimpong some years ago and talked to a farmer who's crop was similarly blighted - he showed me the reason for the orange trees dying en masse (see below) despite being new plantations:
WIth many of our cash crops, ginger, oranges, now large cardamom succumbing to disease and pests, and the looming water crisis in the mountains where our natural springs are drying up, one wonders about food security in the Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalaya and future of agriculture as viable livelihood option for the rural youth of the region.
Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalaya
I also talked with some locals about the landslide situation there but while talking about their livelihoods they said oranges which were their main source of livelihood in Sittong were almost gone.
Of course, everyone here knows that oranges from Sittong once flooded the markets in Kalimpong and those along National Highway10 at Lohapul.
What the people I talked to feared most, was that along with oranges, their livelihoods for generations would also disappear.
They were correct.
Oranges as a cash crop in the Darjeeling-Kalimpong region is history today.
This news was brought out in the Telegraph on 25Nov2015 (see below) and I know that it was shown to a very high level official from the Govt of W Bengal who was visiting Kalimpong that day.
Therefore, I was surprised to read yesterday, another article by Vivek on 'Orange crisis in the hills' (below).
I visited some orchards in Bhalukhop bustee (village), Kalimpong some years ago and talked to a farmer who's crop was similarly blighted - he showed me the reason for the orange trees dying en masse (see below) despite being new plantations:
WIth many of our cash crops, ginger, oranges, now large cardamom succumbing to disease and pests, and the looming water crisis in the mountains where our natural springs are drying up, one wonders about food security in the Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalaya and future of agriculture as viable livelihood option for the rural youth of the region.
Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalaya
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