- Thousands of tons of apples are rotting on trucks stranded on the Srinagar-Jammu highway
- About 80% of India's apple production comes from Kashmir
- The highway suffered massive damage from floods and an avalanche near Udhampur
Thousands of tons of apples are rotting in trucks stranded along the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, with distressed farmers protesting the government's failure to restore the highway for the last 20 days.
Visuals of truckloads of rotten apples being dumped near the highway are being widely shared on social media, indicating the extent of damage and losses faced by ordinary farmers in Kashmir due to the road closure.
About 80 per cent of India's apple production comes from Kashmir, and a prolonged highway closure has badly affected the supply chain and livelihood of the farmers.
Horticulture is the backbone of Kashmir's rural economy. For the whole year, apple farmers work very hard in orchards and invest in a good harvest. But this year has been quite challenging. In several areas, adverse weather had already impacted the crop, and now failure to transport produce to mandis has severely affected the common people.
For the last two days, mandis in Kashmir have been closed, and apple growers are protesting as they see their harvest rotting on the roads.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has termed it a failure to restore the highway for 20 days. Mr Abdullah spoke to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who has assured some concrete steps in the next 24 hours to address the problem.
After last month's heavy rains and cloudbursts, the Srinagar-Jammu highway has suffered massive damage, particularly near Udhampur. Almost a 300-meter-long highway stretch has disappeared at Thared after it was washed away by floods, and then a massive avalanche hit the area. Extensive damage has taken place between Chenani and Udhampur, and Nashri and Banihal sections of the Highway.
Despite efforts to restore the vital road link, the highway couldn't be fully operationalised. Consequently, thousands of vehicles have been stuck, most of them apple trucks.
Thousands of crores have been spent on the construction of the all-weather four-lane Srinagar-Jammu highway. While it eased travel and reduced travel time, the recent heavy rains exposed the fragile nature of this strategic road link. Many believe the widening and construction of the highway was done without a proper risk assessment and disaster management strategy in the geologically unstable region.
The highway is also the main supply line of the Indian Army in Kashmir. Normally, the highway witnesses a heavy military convoy movement every day. But due to the prolonged closure of the Highway, the Army has requisitioned a freight train that delivered the first advance winter supplies for the Army yesterday. On its return journey, the train transported apples from the Valley to Delhi. But that's too little solace for distressed farmers, given the volume of apples stuck in mandis and blocked highway.
Apple growers held protests across Kashmir and blamed the government for inaction and failure to anticipate a crisis after the closure of the road. In Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir, apple growers closed all mandis. Some even demanded that the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway should be handed over to the Army.
"The government has failed to restore the highway. Let them hand over the highway to the Army. We trust our Army. They can restore it within hours, like they worked after recent floods and erected a bailey bridge over the Tawi river in Jammu," said an agitating apple grower.
After protests by apple growers, Omar Abdullah expressed his dismay over the prolonged closure of the highway and asked the central government to hand over the road to the J&K government if it is unable to restore it.
"The highway falls under the domain of the central government. If they can't handle it, then let them hand it over to us. We waited patiently, but nothing happened," said Mr Abdullah.
