blown beans
( Top ) Chitra Subbaiah ’ s house in her estate in Hattihole village ; ( left ) the desolation on the spot after the landslide ajay sukumaran
For those who lost land , verifying claims and boundaries is a big task . For others , replanting is a burden .
is not going to blink ,” says Rajah .
In the mid-nineties , Coorg coffee saw a boom when prices rose because of a supply shortage in Brazil whose production , apart from being vulnerable to frost , was considered inefficient then . The boom years lasted a decade until trends began to reverse . Owing to hilly terrain , Coorg can ’ t mechanise the way Brazil did . So , it has been grappling with high labour costs . Nor can other crops be sown , as coffee plants need trees for shade . Many Kod a- vas , as Coorg ’ s natives are called , conc ede the difficulty in maintaining plantations . The symptoms , many say , have been showing — an ageing population , a younger generation that has been migrating to cities and bits of land being sold to meet expenses , the latter contributing to a social churn in the highlands . This devastating blow came on top of all this .
The future , many say , is bleak . First , the question of land lost , by no means an easy task , given the complexities that involve verifying claims , boundaries and so on . “ Let the government acquire the property . See the record , set tle them ,” says planter Mittu Che n- gappa , who ’ s also a Karnataka Congress general secretary . His suggestion , that the government acquire private land ravaged by landslides for afforestation so that owners can begin afresh elsewhere , has been voiced by many . Unlike neighbouring Chikmagalur — where coffee was first grown in India — there are more small growers in Coorg , many owning only a few acres .
Even for those who didn ’ t lose land , rep lanting will be a big financial burden , says Rajah . Besides the upfront cost , it would mean a five-year wait for yields . “ So , how will they sustain themselves for five years ? What does he do about infrastructure within the farm , workers ’ houses , his house ?” asks Rajah . Coffee planters have always weathered difficult years , but the destruction this year is unprecedented . “ Some years , the crop yield is sharply lower because of lack of rain or excess rain . But this is the first time we have act ually seen this sort of damage where infrastructure is damaged . It ’ s going to be very difficult in the short term ,” reckons Rajah . In the long term , he says , every producing country is bleeding , so things can be pulled back to a degree by increasing efficiency . Of course , primary rehabilitation remains a priority ; the process of replanting will take place slowly . “ The other thing is the labourers are not coming back . We are still in a state of flux , a dilemma as to what ’ s going to happen . There are a lot of issues , it ’ s very fluid ,” says Nanda Belliappa , a coffee grower from Hattihole who has to now walk half a kilometre inside his property to reach his house , as the road leading to it is blocked . The Hatti , a stream outside his gate — where once a Malayalam film was shot — has beached fallen tree trunks ashore . “ The neighbours ’ coffee plants and trees are on our road ... it ’ s unbelievable ,” says his wife Anitha . In villages in these parts , the conversations go from rain to earthquake — many planters say they heard loud booms and felt tremors , but officials say no seismic event was captured .
Bose Mandanna too says he won ’ t be so pessimistic as to say that the coffee industry won ’ t claw back . But he ’ s doubtful about the prospects of a full recovery in North Coorg . “ This area cannot come back in a hurry ,” he says . Last weekend , as the evening drew on , Madikeri wore a deserted look — tourism has stalled and hotels are ordered not to take in travellers for some time . “ Every night , there ’ s fear that the hill will come down on your head ,” says Mandanna . The Kodava harvest festival Kailpodh , when they worship their guns , went by this week . Says Mandanna , “ Nobody was interested in the festival . Coorg has become like a funeral parlour .” O
24 Outlook 17 September 2018