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.
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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.
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If tea factory owners patronised such agents, it will lower the image of the Nilgiri tea, he said.