The rain and hailstorm accompanied by fast winds wreaked havoc with apple orchards in several villages in north Kashmir on Sunday causing massive damage to the growers.
The areas badly hit by the hailstorm are Watergam,Dangiwacha and Zainageer, where the growers pegged the losses to the orchardsup to Rs 150 crore.
“The hailstorm not only damaged the year’s early harvest, italso devastated the fruit-bearing trees,” the growers said.
“There is no mechanism to measure the exact quantum of loss.But the rough estimates suggest that losses could be in the range of Rs 100crore to Rs 150 crore this year alone,” said Bashir Ahmad Basheer, chairman,Kashmir valley fruit growers cum dealers union, Srinagar.
On Sunday, the locals in north Kashmir were seen crying andbeating their chests after witnessing the damage. “It is a huge loss. Thevegetable crop and the apple orchards, which are in early stage of theirharvest, have suffered massive damage,” said Farooq Ahmad of WatergamRafiabad.
Growers said the hailstorm accompanied by stormy winds andstrong rains destroyed almost entire apple crop in at least a dozen villages innorth Kashmir.
“We request SKUASTKashmir, Director Horticulture Development Kashmir and Director HorticulturePlanning and Marketing to depute official teams to the affected areas to assessthe damage,” Bashir said.
He said Governor Satya Pal Malik and his Advisor inchargeHorticulture should consider grant of compensation to the affected farmers.
President, Sopore Fruit Mandi, Fayaz Ahmad Malik said theorchard owners in northern Kashmir particularly in Rafiabad “have borne maximumbrunt of the hailstorm.”
“The losses are running in crores of rupees as growers hadjust sprinkled pesticides on the trees, spending lakhs of rupees on it. We havebeen appealing the authorities for years now for introducing crop insurance butto no avail,” he said.