Our tea gardens are mostly located in remote rural areas that do not have many alternative local employment opportunities. The social welfare laws for tea plantation workers in India are the most stringent in the world. Though this has resulted in Indian tea being more costly to produce, it has also contributed to a system which is seen to be fair and in line with good employment practices.

McLeod Russel seeks out and promotes methods of growing tea using sound environmental practices that encourage bio-diversity and healthy soils.

We practice respect for the earth without formal organic certification. We also practise soil and water conservation through Best Practice field management systems and these include composting, soil rehabilitation and reforestation.

McLeod Russel was the first Indian company to initiate an Uprooting & Replanting programme in the early 1990's. Our Company saw that, to optimise output (Yield) of a section, the age of the bush was a critical factor.

Through careful planning and management we have, for more than a decade, maintained our leading Industry position for yields and standards and as a result have planted for the future of Tea in the region.

It is with pleasure that we now see the industry following our lead and initiating replanting programmes, so ensuring a sound future for the people of the region.

To comply with the legal requirement of supplying every household with a 'Fire Wood' ration, McLeod Russel initiated the use of providing our employees with uprooted tea bushes, rather than allow further destruction of the region’s forests with the consequential impact on the environment.

Again this too has been mirrored by the industry to the benefit of all.

 

Groundwater constitutes approximately 89% of the total fresh water on the plant.
However in recent years, due to over usage and the erratic nature of the seasonal monsoons, this essential natural resource has been depleted across all of India.

The state of Assam is especially vulnerable to climatic irregularities and the annual monsoons are critical to the well being of the state and its population. Soil varieties, such as sandy loam, make for fertile agro-land but have a tendency to suffer drought with erratic rainfall.

Groundwater is the primary source of water for drinking and irrigation. It provides a unique resource, widely available, providing security against droughts and yet is closely linked to surface water resources and the hydrological cycle.

Population and economic growth have placed great pressures on these resources and the rapid expansion of the Assam state is likely to reducing the sub-surface water table, so removing an essential element to life and food security for so many people.

McLeod Russel has begun an exercise to reverse this trend by harvesting rain water, captured from roof tops, to recharge the groundwater levels on our estates.

At Tarajulie Tea Estate the first trials have begun to create a sustainable groundwater policy for the betterment of the entire estate. By capturing rain water from the factory roofs we are able to channel this water, being filtered by the modular filtration system, to the bored deep tube wells and recharge the sub-surface water levels in the surrounding area. Also drain water has also been diverted to the through modular filtration system to recharge the bored deep tube well in the field which gets exhausted by irrigation during winter months.

 

McLeod Russel constantly strives to reduce the environmental impact from the use of pesticides and herbicides by only using environmentally friendly chemicals that excludes Ethion, Tetradifon, Quinalphos and Monocrotophos and so eliminate even small traces of harmful residues.

We ensure, through strict management supervision, that tight controls are achieved for both the methods of application and the frequency of use of universally approved chemicals, so the effect on our tea gardens' indigenous flora and fauna is minimised.

Our Pest Management systems comply with numerous minimal residue levels (MRL's) in accordance with European Legislation and we pride ourselves on our Code of Practice.

 

Each of our 53 tea gardens has, within their Nursery, a programme designed to grow indigenous flora for planting throughout the estate. 

This allows us to do our part in maintaining the beauty of the region, whilst ensuring as bio-diverse a plant population as possible, within the confines of our tea gardens.

 

By law we provide free accommodation and sanitation to our employees, we meet all our legal obligations.

 

By law we provide free Primary education of our employees' children, we have achieved this through the construction of schools on every one of our 53 tea gardens.

 

 

 

We maintain medical facilities in excess of legal obligations on every tea garden. McLeod Russel has invested considerably to meet this obligation and we can now boast some of the premier medical facilities within the entire region.

Our central Hospitals contain state-of-the-art facilities and employ committed staff. We maintain these to the highest standards so providing for the needs of our employees, staff and management.

 

Free Eye Clinic

2009 saw the six McLeod Russel Mangaldai tea estates begin a community project between our district Central Hospital, based at Paneery Tea Estate and the Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya Hospital in Guwahati.

This community programme, the first of it type ever in Assam, consists of screening and identifying patients suffering from eye diseases, particularly those with cataracts, in the rural areas where our tea estates lie.

The screening was conducted by way of outreach camp and resulted in our fist camp identifying 175 people, who were suffering from some degree of eye disease. Of these 175 people, 89 cases were diagnosed as requiring further treatment in the form of a cataract operation.

The entire cost of the treatment and any medication, including transportation (both to and from the base hospital, Guwahati), stay at the community centre of the base hospital, has been borne by McLeod Russel India Limited, so providing a totally free programme to all our patients, both from the estates and the surrounding areas, for the benefit of the district as a whole.

In addition to the cataract detection and surgery, these outreach camps also undertake screening programmes for other eye diseases and we provide free treatment for all those tested through referral services.

Having proven such a success and benefit to the communities we work within, we have decided to expand this programme of community help to other districts, where we operate.

We believe that the success we have experienced in the Mangaldai district will be mirrored across the Assam valley and that many communities will enjoy the success of this project.

 

McLeod Russel has promoted a health care program called "Mothers' Club", which is a unique institution compromising of about 20 senior women workers on each estate, who provide the guidance on health care, family planning and sexual health, including prevention of AIDS, good practices in hygiene at home and for babies. As a result of this infant mortality rates are lower than the national average.

They also extend support to ongoing ILO and UNICEF programmes.

By law we provide for adequate welfare and recreational facilities for our employees and we pride ourselves in maintaining crèches, clubs and sporting sites for all our company's employees to use.

We also comply with the legal requirement to provide blankets and protective clothing (like shoes and umbrellas) and regularly issue new items out.

 

By law we allow every employee the right to form and join a Trade Union.