Why India tea workers are agitated

India is home to world famous tea brands such as the Darjeeling variety, grown in the Himalayas. But plantation workers on the plains further south, where tea for the domestic market is grown, often live in terrible conditions, as Sanjoy Majumder reports from Jalpaiguri in north Bengal.

There's an eerie silence at the Sonali Tea Estates, a sprawling plantation in north Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, at the foothills of the Himalayas.

The owner's bungalow is empty and there are no workers to be seen anywhere.

Last week the owner, Rajesh Jhunjhunwala, was dragged out of the two-storey whitewashed building by angry workers and beaten to death amid the tea bushes.

The murder has sent shockwaves through the tea-growing community.

"This attack is completely unprecedented," says UB Das, secretary of the Terai Planters' Association.

"We are all demoralised and everyone is nervous about their safety."

The homes of the workers', located just outside the gate, are also deserted. Some of the women have collected outside. There's tension in the air.

"The police came at night and took away several of our men," says one woman.

"We fled into the jungle and spent the night there with our children."

Others complained that they hadn't been paid in months.

"We don't get anything - no rations, medical aid nothing. How are we expected to survive">