The ongoing strike by plantation workers has started to threaten the tourism industry in Kerala’s tea country Munnar, perhaps the most popular destination in God’s Own Country. As the indefinite strike entered the eleventh day Thursday, the tourism industry in Munnar began to report fall in hotel bookings and rise in cancellations. Thursday witnessed hundreds of plantation workers belonging to various trade unions blocking traffic on all roads leading to and from Munnar resulting in the stranding of tourists and other road-users and prompting State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala to ask the workers to withdraw from actions that could lead to law and order problems.
At the same time, hundreds of workers from Ponbila Orumai (Woman’s Unity), a collective of woman tea estate workers of Tata-controlled Kanan Devan Hill Plantations ltd in Munnar, decided to start an indefinite road-block stir in Munnar to put pressure on the Government and the plantation management.
On Thursday, workers belonging to various trade unions blocked all roads around Munnar — including National Highways and inter-state roads — at 15 points. Tourists stranded among tea gardens could be seen pleading with the police to get passage. Thursday also saw traders in Munnar region responding positively to the call of the Ponbila Orumai to declare solidarity to their agitation by keeping their shops closed causing more hardships to tourists and others. The agitation has hit Munnar just when the hill resort as the tourism industry was expecting good business in the coming days due to the pooja holidays, a season when it receives large number of domestic tourists from North India.