Hailstorm lashes Shopian village

Shopian, Oct 5: A hailstorm lashed south Kashmir’s Heerpora area on Saturday afternoon, causing damage to unharvested apple crops.

Many distraught apple cultivators said that the hailstorm started at around 4 pm and lasted for at least 3 to 5 minutes.

According to the farmers, the pea-sized hail pellets pummeled the fruit, leaving them damaged.

“Although the hailstorm lasted for a few minutes, it caused bruises on the surface of the fruit,” the farmers said.

However, they said that they were still assessing the damage.

The village experienced a hailstorm for the third time since April this year.

The previous spells caused significant damage to the fruit with some farmers pegging the damage at 60 percent.

The area was known for producing first-rate potatoes.

However, the farmers switched over to apple cultivation as potato production diminished over the last two decades.

Although apple cultivation initially proved lucrative, climate change over the last few years incurred heavy losses to the growers.

The unseasonal snowfall, fast-blowing winds and hailstorms often spell doom for the apple orchards, leaving the cultivators distraught.

“The crop insurance scheme and Minimum Support Price (MSP) could only save this industry,” Peer Shabir, an apple cultivator from Shopian, said.