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P.S. Sundar

Coonoor March 14 Tea estates in the Nilgiris are facing a threat of red spider mite, which could lower the harvest in the coming weeks if remedial steps are not taken, planters said.

"The incidence of the mite has surfaced in Coonoor, Kotagiri, Kundah and Udhagamandalam belts. The incidence was heavy in the last three years. So, it is imperative that we should take preventive measures right now," says a release from the Tea Board and the UPASI Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

Control Measures

The release warns that if preventive steps are not taken, the tea would soon turn red and brown. Meanwhile, the growers complain that the crop has come down due to the impact of the frost in the last couple of months as also the prevailing dry weather. Tea scientists are advising the growers the steps they have to take to protect the bushes from the dry weather. Factory owners say that the arrival of the green leaves for processing has slowed. "We are manufacturing tea only for two days in a week," Mr G. Stephen Jayaseelan, factory owner in Wellington, told Business Line.

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