Harvest of Heartbreak

Kulgam/Shopian, Sep 03 : Strong winds and a hailstorm, which swept through dozens of villages in south Kashmir’s Kulgam and Shopian districts on Monday, left a trail of devastation.

The high-speed winds knocked off apples from trees in at least 25 villages in the Kulgam district.

The most affected villages include Pombay, Tazipora, Muhammad Pora, and Okay.

The windfall carpeted the ground across apple farms, sprawling over hundreds of kanal land.

On Tuesday, the distressed apple cultivators visited their farms to collect the fallen fruit.

Farooq Ahmad, an affected farmer, said that the high-speed winds spelt doom for hundreds of apple farms in the area.

“The high-velocity winds caused almost 100 percent damage in the area,” Ahmad said.

He said that most of the farmers had already borrowed huge sums of money from the traders and banks, hoping to repay them following a successful harvest.

“Now we are left with nothing,” Ahmad said.

Many farmers said that an intense hailstorm lashed the area following the gusty winds.

Several teams from the Department of Horticulture and Revenue visited the affected areas to assess the loss.

Tehsildar Kulgam, Bilal Ahmad said that apart from the apple orchards, the high-speed winds also caused damage to many structures in the villages.

He said that around 200 structures were damaged in the district.

In the neighbouring Shopian district, an intense hailstorm on Monday evening hit at least two dozen villages, wreaking havoc on apple orchards.

Apple cultivators from several villages including Vehil Kachdora, Kachdora-Check, Zaipora, Ramnagri, Peerpora, and Ratnipora said that the chickpea-sized hailstones, which lasted for around 7 to 10 minutes, caused substantial damage to the fruit.

An orchardist and President Pesticides Association Peer Shabir said that the hailstorm caused around 60 to 70 percent damage in the area.

Muhammad Ilyas, an apple cultivator from Kachdora, pegged the loss at 70 percent.

Director Horticulture, Kashmir, Zahoor Ahmad, who along with a team of experts visited several affected areas in both districts, told reporters that the extent of damage was around 50 to 60 percent.

He advised the farmers to collect the fallen fruit and said that the department was making efforts to market it.

The official said that an advisory would also be issued for the affected farmers.

He said that hail nets could not be used for conventional apple farms to protect them from hailstorms.

However, he apprised that a crop insurance scheme would be rolled out in March 2025.