Kalimpong,
April 14. - One of the most famous exports of this sub-divisional
town is today crumbling under a mould of neglect. Kalimpong
Cheese - as it is known in the region - may not be quite the
world-famous Cheddar. but aficionados of cheese assert that
the product still appeals to the global palate. But today
it is just a couple of households that keep alive a legacy
of the town that once famously exported around 2,000 kg of
its cheese to Kolkata per month. The art is dying, when it
could be the source of a flourishing cottage industry for
a part of the economically backward Hills.
At 7 Mile, in the outskirts of the town,
62-year-old Mrs Soma Lama, dismantled the sign - Papu Dairy
- from above her house last year. The dairy was one of the
main sources of cheese and lollipop (another specialty of
the town) in the region. Mounting losses and the visits of
taxmen, Mrs Lama laments, has virtually forced her to call
quits. Like most people who made cheese in Kalimpong, Mrs
Lama had worked in the famous "Swiss Welfare Dairy"
- which used to be then located next to the St Augustine's
School - for nearly 38 years. The dairy was set up in the
1950s by a Swiss Jesuit Father, Andre Butty. The missionary,
who died in 1987, was responsible for first introducing the
cheese and the lollipop manufacturing to Kalimpong. With his
demise, however, the dairy shut down. Over 100 local villagers,
like Mrs Lama, were employed in the dairy.
After the SWD collapsed, Mrs Lama and five
other women employees got together and set up Papu Dairy.
"In the heydays, we used to make cheese from around 200
litres of milk every day. Now, we make only a kg or two of
it in a week," she notes.
Not only has the quality of milk procured
by Mrs Lama from the village drastically fallen and firewood
hard to come by, but since the last three years, taxmen have
started visiting and debiting them. "The authorities
should be actually helping us as self-employed rural women,
but instead, they are taxing us. We cannot continue this way,"
said Mrs Lama. Moreover, her lollipops are not selling any
more because cheaper and inferior quality lollipops from Siliguri
- which use dalda instead of ghee and powder-milk instead
of milk - has proliferated the market.
But across the town, in the remote Upper
Icchay Bustee, 73-year-old Mr Dhan Prasad Sharma presents
a relatively sanguine picture. He is presently among the four
manufacturers of Kalimpong cheese. Although Mr Sharma has
taken to producing cheese from a shack near his house only
since 2001, his products dominate the "Kalimpong Cheese"
market.
Assisted by his daughters, he produces
around 10 kg of cheese daily. The process is manual. "My
cheese goes to Keventers, Glenary's and Larks (reputed retailers
and confectioneries of the Hills). If the market wants more,
I can produce more cheese," claims a proud Mr Sharma,
who learnt the art of making the cheese by "observing"
the procedure at Dr Graham's Homes, a local school. The school
primarily produces it for its own consumption.
Courtesy
The Telegraph |
Home
| About Us | Contact
Us | Site Map | Feedback
