Police Investigate Two Deaths at Samdung Tea Estate
Two deaths on a single day at an Assam tea garden, set against a national audit that found safety inspections running 65% to 94% below the prescribed rate.
Doomdooma police opened investigations into two deaths recorded on the same day, Aug. 10, at Samdung tea estate in Assam's Tinsukia district, Sentinel Assam reported.
A 10-year-old girl died after allegedly being bitten by a snake, the report said.
A 28-year-old woman died after reportedly suffering electrocution.
Both were taken to Doomdooma Referral Hospital, a First Referral Unit, where they were declared dead on arrival, according to the report.
The investigations were open at the time of the report, which gave no findings in either case. The report did not say whether either victim worked on the estate.
Sentinel Assam tied the deaths to a wider pattern of safety gaps inside Assam's tea gardens, the same estates that supply the tea sold under Assam's name. The report cited a 2024 performance audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which found a 65% to 94% shortfall in the prescribed rate of tea-garden inspections between 2015-16 and 2019-20.
That audit reviewed 40 tea estates across four zones, including the Dibrugarh zone, and found shortcomings in the implementation of labour laws and welfare provisions covering housing, healthcare and other amenities, the report said.
Snakebite is a recognised occupational hazard for tea workers, especially women engaged in leaf-plucking, according to the report.
The report attributed electrocution risk in tea-garden settlements to exposed wiring, defective connections and poorly maintained installations, and said the risk worsens in the rainy season.
Sources: The Sentinel Assam, "Assam: Twin Deaths at Samdung Tea Estate Raise Alarm Over Worker Safety".