A raid conducted by the Tea Board and the United Planters Association of Southern India-Krishi Vigyan Kendra (UPASI-KVK), near Kotagiri resulted in the seizure of 900 kg of sub-standard tea leaves.
Executive Director, Tea Board, R.D. Nazeem, told The Hindu on Saturday that said that the raid was conducted following a tip-off that waste leaves from pruned tea gardens were finding their way to tea processing units.
A team, comprising Tea Board officials U.K. Deori and G. Selvaraj and KVK official Anand Kumar, conducted the raid on Friday night at Haadathorai near Kotagiri.
A pick-up van that was intercepted was found to be transporting the pruned leaves.
When questioned, an occupant of the vehicle, Kaja, a tea leaf agent, said that he was supplying such leaves to factories which mixed them with the other leaves.
The vehicle too has been seized.
If tea factory owners patronised such agents, it will lower the image of the Nilgiri tea, he said.