Tea Area Management Information System

Tea is one of the most important beverages in India and major foreign exchange earner. India is the largest producer of tea in the world. The Indian states of Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim in the north-east and Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala in the south contribute significantly to the overall tea production in the country.

Presently there is no structured geo-spatial database at the national level regarding natural resources available in the tea gardens, management aspects of the gardens and extreme events of flood, insects / pests, drought etc. For efficient management and to augment the productivity and quality, there is need to appraise the resource potential and limitations, health of tea bushes, changes in land use and tea growing areas and soil-bioclimatic suitability for expansion of tea growing areas. To rejuvenate the existing gardens phase wise uprooting of the tea bushes and soil rehabilitation before fresh planting is urgently required. Time to time monitoring of the uprooted areas and re-planting using modern survey tools is important for realization in the ground.

Remote sensing technology is a pragmatic tool by virtue of its multi-spectral and synoptic viewing capability as well as repetitive coverage to pick up garden details and their temporal dynamics at micro level. The information acquired through satellite remote sensing can be stored as geo-database, which can be retrieved, appended, updated and modeled based upon the requirement. Remote sensing technology coupled with Geographic Information System can host a large number of data sets whether geographic or attribute and can increase the dimensionality of interpretation.

Remote Sensing data and Geographical Information System (GIS), is emerging as an flexible, efficient, speedy, cost-effective and reliable technology for obtaining information on natural resources analysis and modeling. Efforts are underway to evolve a comprehensive project on Tea Area Development and Management using RS and GIS in conjunction with ground based information generated over the years.

Realizing the monitoring need in view of massive uprooting and re-plantation exercise that would be taken up phase wise, Tea Board has planned to make use of the satellite data in mapping of the tea gardens of the country, which will through light on the actual extent of the area available either for new plantation or for alternative cropping. Alongside the connectivity with the organized sector and the large gardens, the remote sensing will identify location of small growers and will help establish a linkage between them and Tea Board.

Portal employs GIS and MIS for information access, analysis dissemination which aids all the stakeholders and Tea Board in particular, for efficient management and development of tea gardens and industries . It is an efficient tool for online querying, statistics and reports generation that improves the decision making process for all the beneficiaries. This package is powered by major functionalities viz. visualisation of satellite imagery, natural resource and other themes along with non-spatial attribute data, identification, single and multi-theme query, spatial overlay, criteria based queries, geo - processing, modelling and output generation.


Help For Geovisualisation....

Tea is an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub nativeto Asia. After water, it is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. Some teas, like Darjeeling and Chinese greens, have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have vastly different profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes.

Tea originated in China as a medicinal drink. It came to the West via Portuguese priests and merchants, introduced to it there during the 16th century. Drinking tea became fashionable among Britons during the 17th century, who introduced the plant to their possessions in India to bypass a Chinese monopoly.

The phrase herbal tea usually refers to infusions of fruit or herbs made without the tea plant, such as steeps of rosehip, chamomile, or rooibos. These are also known as tisanes or herbal infusions to distinguish them from "tea" as it is commonly construed.

History of Tea

Commercial production of tea in India began after the conquest of large areas by the British East India Company, at which point large tracts of land were converted for mass tea production. The widespread popularity of tea as a recreational drink began in earnest in the 1920s, after a successful advertising campaign by the Tea Board and several mass promotion drives by the Government, using railway stations as a base.

Today, India is one of the largest tea producers in the world, although over 70 per cent of its tea is consumed within India itself. In this, India is also among the top 5 per-capita tea consumers. A number of renowned teas, such as Assam and Darjeeling, also grow exclusively in India. The Indian tea industry has grown to own many global tea brands and has evolved into one of the most technologically equipped tea industries in the world. Tea production, certification, exportation, and all other facets of the tea trade in India is controlled by the Tea Board of India.

Tea is one of the industries, which by an Act of Parliament comes under the control of the Union Govt. The genesis of the Tea Board India dates back to 1903 when the Indian Tea Cess Bill was passed.

The Bill provided for levying a cess on tea exports - the proceeds of which were to be used for the promotion of Indian tea both within and outside India. The present Tea Board set up under section 4 of the Tea Act 1953 was constituted on 1st April 1954.

It has succeeded the Central Tea Board and the Indian Tea Licensing Committee which functioned respectively under the Central Tea Board Act, 1949 and the Indian Tea Control Act, 1938 which were repealed.

The activities of the two previous bodies had been confined largely to regulation of tea cultivation and export of tea as required by the International Tea Agreement then in force, and promotion of tea Consumption.

Report :
* Tea Area Mangement Information System Report:    West Bengal    Assam
Atlas :
* Tea Garden Atlas Based On Satellite Remote Sensing Data:    Jalpaiguri    Dibrugarh

This web portal has been designed and developed by Tea MIS & GIS Project Team under a joint project between Tea Board, and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Kolkata.

Though all efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy and correctness of the content of information, the same should not be constructed as a statement of law or used for any legal purposes. It has been prepared solely for the purpose of information dissemination about status of India's tea gardens. The entire risk as to the results of the use of this data/information/service is assumed by the user.

227 number of gardens in West Bengal and 281 number of gardens in Assam are presently available in this portal. Subsequently the database will be updated.

RRSC-East/ ISRO are not responsible for any interpretation or conclusions made by those who acquire or use the data. Under no circumstances will RRSC-East/ISRO be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, compensatory or consequential damages or third-party claims resulting from the use of this data.

Some Information has been derived from digital databases developed by sources outside the project. Therefore, RRSC-East/ ISRO cannot accept any responsibility for any errors, omissions or positional accuracy.

RRSC-East/ ISRO (along its centres/units/partners) make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of any content or the service.

With respect to the links to the other websites provided in this portal, the contents of the website is owned by the respective departments/organization and they may be contacted for any further information or suggestions.

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and constructed in accordance with the Indian Laws. Any dispute arising under these terms and conditions shall be subjected to the jurisdiction of the course of India.