by Norman Wood
It's always good to welcome a new writer at Indian Chai Stories and I have to thank Noreen Wood for sending me this lovely story by her brother Norman ( 'three generations of planters in the family', writes Noreen ) All pix courtesy Noreen.
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| Pic of Norman's children Carol and Andrew taken at their home on the tea estate some years ago |
Kadamane Tea Estate is situated on the Western Ghats, about 30 Km from a small town named Sakleshpur, in Hassan District, Karnataka. The town and its surrounding areas are mainly plantation country. Saklespur is known for its lush vegetation, thick forests, flowing streams, waterfalls and beautiful meadows stretching for miles.
The name Kadamane (prounced Ka-da-man-aye) in the local language literally translates as Kaadu (Forest) and Mane (House). Kadamane was the only tea estate in the district and is known for its thick vegetation, picturesque landscapes and wildlife. Originally purchased to be the hunting grounds for the Earl of Warwick, it extends for 7600 acres and was a place of work and home to us for many years at the start of my career as a young tea planter in the 1970s. The property is surrounded by vast grasslands and it was customary in the months of February/March for the villagers who live along our border to set fire to these grasslands as precautionary measures adopted to prevent forest fires and to enable luxuriant re-growth of the grass for grazing their cattle.
In 1976, the estate workers noticed a raging forest fire, and saw that a bison and her calf were trapped in it. Great efforts went into saving the bison and her calf, but unfortunately, they were only able to carry the calf to safety.
My wife Lorraine and I decided to take care of the bison calf which was a herculean task at the onset. We named her Shobha.
We first tried to let our Jersey cows adopt her, but this did not work. We then decided to bottle feed her; she could drink anything from 3 to 6 bottles of milk a day. We gradually weaned her and started her on rice conjee water, ground nut cake, ground cotton seed and of course her favourite jaggery (molasses).
A small pen was made for her in our cattle shed. Shobha became very tame and mixed with the other cattle to graze on the grasslands. In the evening she was fed her food supplements. She soon became a favourite with all the workers and if called by her name she would respond by coming down the hill to join them. She would eat jaggery, bananas and coconut from Lorraine’s hand.
Shobha came on heat and we tried to rehabilitate her with the bison herds on the grass hills, but she refused to join them and would return home with the cattle.
Lorraine, our two children Carol & Andrew and I used to go home for our Christmas vacation via Mysore to Coonoor, a hill station town in the Nilgiri Hills. The children enjoyed their trips to the Mysore Zoo where we usually stopped for a break in our journey. It was on one of these trips that we realized that the Mysore Zoo had no bison. I got in touch with the designated zoo authorities and asked them if we could donate a bison to the zoo. After the initial documentation and inspection, they happily agreed.
We have photos of Lorraine feeding Shobha jaggery, the letter from the Mysore Zoo acknowledging our gift of the Bison and the write up in the local newspaper of our star attraction, Shobha.
Meet the writer:
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| Norman with Lorraine |
Norman's career in tea spanned 34 years with Chennai based Murugappa Group and he retired as General Manager after heading their South India plantation operations with Parry Agro Industries Ltd. His retirement is spent serving as Chairman of the Board, Managing Trustee and Member of the Board respectively, of three English speaking schools in the Nilgiri Hills. He and his wife Lorraine enjoy visiting their daughter Carol in the USA and their son Andrew in the UK whenever they can.
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My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and
I'm a
tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I
wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a
story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always
true (always), maybe a tall tale, long, or short, impossible, scary,
funny or exciting but never dull. There are over 120 stories of tea life
here, all written by people who have lived in tea gardens.
