Kashmir: Heavy snowfall wreaks havoc on apple orchards

Irshad Ahmad, an apple grower in Shopian, nearly 50 km south of Srinagar, is in a quandary. In the midst of his orchard, he is unable to decide whether to go on with fixing apple trees damaged by the heavy snowfall or pack his harvested fruit in the cartons.

While the state government on Friday declared the heavy snowfall earlier this week as state-specific "special natural calamity", the meteorological officials in the Valley have forecast a more snowfall in the days to come.

The prevailing harsh winter conditions are causing consternation among farmers whose apple orchards were devastated in the recent snowfall particularly in four southern districts including Pulwama, Kulgam, Anantnag and Shopian.

As it started tipping down on Tuesday afternoon, thousands of apple orchardists began feeling unsettled, fearing more losses to the trees and unharvested crop. The early November snowfall has wreaked havoc on apple trees and the growers continue to count their losses.

"I have already lost  40 per cent of my harvest and 30 per cent of trees to the recent snowfall," says Ahmad, adding in the same breath that “Now, I can’t afford to ignore the weather forecasts.”

Ghulam Mohammad, an orchardist from Heerpora area, says that farmers are busy clearing snow from the apple trees and most of the harvest is lying buried under think snow cover on the farms. "More snowfall means more destruction," he says pensively.

Apple growers in Kanipora village are also busy mending their damaged trees and plucking the unharvested crop for the past few days following intense snowfall on November 3 and 4 in Kashmir division.

A preliminary assessment by State Executive Committee of the State Disaster Response Fund headed by Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam has suggested that nearly 53,000 hectares of horticulture and 9,000 hectares of agriculture crops have been damaged so far.

Anticipating more snowfall, many farmers have stopped mending the damaged trees. Zeeshan Rashid,  a fruit grower from Machpuna village of Pulwama says, "I left fixing my damaged trees midway as more snowfall is expected . It is better to salvage what has been left out.”

“It is wise to prune the trees first,” he remarks.

Echoing the same concerns, Abdul Rashid Mir  and Mohammad Shafi  from Sallar and Manzgam villages of district Anantnag and Kulgam respectively say they fear if the continuing bad weather conditions persist for long, it would prove disastrous for their orchards. Pertinently, the recent snowfall has spelt doom for apple orchards in both the districts.

Although the amount of exact damage caused by the snowfall is yet be assessed, officials at state’s horticulture department roughly estimate a loss of Rs 1000 crore to Kashmir’s the fruit industry.