By Sujoy Dhar
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Fresh protests for a separate state in India's famous Darjeeling hills are threatening its tea and tourism industries, traders said, as the Gorkha community continues to press its demand for autonomy.
Gorkhas, who are ethnic Nepalis, are demanding a separate state of "Gorkhaland" be carved out of West Bengal state's Darjeeling region to protect their Himalayan culture and heritage, and protests have picked up again this month.
The ruling communist government in West Bengal opposes the idea, as do Bengali groups in the foothills to the south of Darjeeling. There have been sporadic outbreaks of unrest between ethnic Nepalis and Bengalis as a result.
Caught in this battle are tea traders, who say exports of premium Darjeeling tea may fall 20-25 percent this year due to political unrest in the hills.
The region's vast tea gardens ship highly prized and fragrant brews around the world, churning out about 10 million kg a year.
"This third protest in the past few months has left the garden managers and workers jittery and we estimate 20 percent loss in production in tea gardens," Rajiv Lochan, secretary of the Siliguri Tea Traders' Association, told Reuters.
"This is the end of season and pruning is supposed to begin in a while."
Exports of Darjeeling tea had been expected to rise 20-25 percent over last year's 6 million kg, but now the industry is staring at substantial losses.
Most of it goes to the Middle East, Pakistan, Russia, and Germany.
The Gorkhas have rejected offers by state and central governments to talk about increased autonomy, saying only statehood would solve their problems.
At least 1,200 people died in the first Gorkhaland campaign in the 1980s, but protests ended a few years later after Gorkha leaders accepted limited autonomy.
"We will not settle for anything less than a separate Gorkha state this time," said Roshan Giri, a protest leader of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Gorkha People's Liberation Front), which is spearheading the protest.
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets this week and forced car owners to replace the government licence plates with ones saying "Gorkhaland."
Tourists have also been avoiding the Darjeeling hills, with thousands of cancellations reported by tour operators since April this year.
"The tourist inflow is 20 percent less and we are estimating an annual loss of 200 million rupees ($4 million)," said Anil Punjabi, who heads the eastern India unit of the Travel Agents Federation of India.
Darjeeling, known for the picturesque Himalayan mountains, tea gardens and hospitality, is a premier tourist destination.
(Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Bill Tarrant)
