‘Gone to waste’: Kashmir growers watch apples rot as key highway is blocked

Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – A distraught Javid Ahmad Bhat fears helium whitethorn suffer the full year’s net from the apples helium grows.

Two trucks bearing his apples worthy much than $10,000 are among rows of stranded carriers that agelong for miles on a cardinal road connecting his city, Baramullah, successful Indian-administered Kashmir to the remainder of India. Their tarpaulin covers bulge with crates of fruits that person begun to blacken and illness nether the value of rot.

“All our hard enactment for the full twelvemonth has gone to waste. What we painstakingly nurtured since the outpouring is lost. No 1 volition bargain these rotten apples, and they volition ne'er scope New Delhi. We are near with nary prime but to propulsion distant some truckloads on the highway,” Bhat told Al Jazeera connected Tuesday.

The Jammu–Srinagar nationalist road – the lone all-weather roadworthy transportation successful the Himalayan portion – has been repeatedly blocked since August 24 aft rain-triggered landslides damaged a conception of it. For much than a month, the portion has been battered by a terrible monsoon fury, sidesplitting astatine slightest 170 radical and causing extended harm to properties, roads, and different infrastructure.

A motortruck operator shows rotten apples successful his conveyance stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, aft the road roadworthy was closed pursuing landslide and floods, successful Qazigund town, Anantnag district, Indian Kashmir, September 10, 2025 [Sharafat Ali/Reuters]

Blockade during highest harvest season

Horticulture forms the backbone of Indian-administered Kashmir’s economy, with the vale producing astir 20–25 cardinal metric tonnes of apples each twelvemonth – astir 78 percent of India’s full pome output, according to information Al Jazeera collected from effect growers’ associations.

The road blockade coincides with the highest harvest play successful Kashmir, locally called “harud”, during which apples, walnuts and atom are gathered from thousands of orchards and fields crossed the valley.

“It’s not conscionable maine oregon my colony – this situation [road closure] is hitting each of Kashmir’s pome growers. Our full livelihood depends connected this harvest,” said Bhat, calling it a 2nd stroke to the region’s system this twelvemonth aft the Pahalgam onslaught successful April, erstwhile suspected rebels killed 28 people, severely disrupting tourism – different cardinal assemblage successful the valley.

A section authorities official, speaking connected information of anonymity due to the fact that helium was not authorised to talk to the media, said astir 4,000 trucks person been stranded connected the road astatine Qazigund country successful confederate Kashmir’s Anantnag territory for 2 weeks, and the effect loaded connected them has begun to rot, resulting successful estimated losses of astir $146m.

In protest, growers unopen down effect markets crossed Kashmir connected Monday and Tuesday arsenic they condemned the government’s inability to wide the cardinal road.

“If the road stays blocked for adjacent a fewer much days, our losses volition skyrocket beyond imagination,” Ishfaq Ahmad, a effect grower successful Sopore town, told Al Jazeera.

Sopore successful Baramulla district, astir 45km (28 miles) from Srinagar, is location to Asia’s largest effect market. But the sprawling analyzable was a country of despair connected Tuesday. Fresh pome crates remained piled up successful an endless wait, arsenic each passing time reduced their value, oregon worse, brought them person to rotting. Some estimates said the terms of an pome container had already fallen from 600 rupees ($7) to 400 rupees ($5).

“We person stopped bringing much apples to the marketplace here. We are forced to permission them astatine the orchards due to the fact that determination is nary abstraction left, and the trucks that near earlier are inactive stranded connected the highway,” said Ahmad.

Rotten apples prevarication connected the crushed adjacent trucks stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, aft the road roadworthy was closed pursuing landslide and floods, successful Qazigund town, Anantnag district, Indian Kashmir, September 10, 2025 [Sharafat Ali/ Reuters]

‘Nothing is moving’

Fayaz Ahmad Malik, president of the Kashmir effect growers’ association, said astir 10 percent of the trucks near for New Delhi connected Tuesday aft a 20-day standstill connected the highway, but thousands stay stuck.

“Our preliminary estimates already tally into crores [millions],” helium said, adding that the authorities failed to instrumentality punctual enactment erstwhile the road closure archetypal began, worsening the crisis.

To code the crisis, Manoj Sinha, the region’s apical authoritative appointed by New Delhi, connected September 15 launched a dedicated bid from Budgam presumption successful the cardinal portion of Indian-administered Kashmir to New Delhi to transport the fruit, claiming the determination would “significantly trim transit time, summation income opportunities for thousands of farmers, and boost the cultivation system of the region”.

“It’s fundamentally a parcel manager linked to a rider train, not a full-fledged goods train,” a railway authoritative told Al Jazeera, connected information of anonymity due to the fact that helium was not authorised to talk to the media, adding that the bid tin transportation astir 23-24 tonnes of nutrient each day.

But farmers accidental the measurement offers lone constricted alleviation to growers successful Kashmir, who nutrient astir 2 cardinal tonnes of apples each year.

“It [the peculiar train] is simply a affirmative move, but with specified capacity, it volition lone transportation astir 1 truckload of apples per day, which is acold little than what the growers need,” Shakeel Ahmad, an authoritative astatine a effect marketplace successful Shopian district, told Al Jazeera.

As choler and vexation implicit the stalled trucks mount, the region’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has constricted administrative powers successful a portion controlled straight by New Delhi, connected Tuesday said if the national authorities cannot support the road operational, its power should beryllium handed implicit to him.

“We person been patient, waiting for regular assurances that the restoration would beryllium completed, but thing has been done. Enough is enough,” Abdullah said, speaking to reporters connected September 15 successful Srinagar, the region’s largest city.

Meanwhile, successful a station connected X connected September 16, Nitin Gadkari, the national curate for roadworthy transport and highways, said much than 50 earthmovers person been deployed successful a round-the-clock cognition to wide and repair the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

“We are determined to reconstruct this captious nationalist road to afloat spot astatine the earliest, ensuring information and convenience for each roadworthy users,” helium wrote.

But the minister’s assurances supply small comfortableness to Shabir Ahmad, a motortruck operator astatine Qazigund, who climbs into his van each greeting to inspect the pome boxes.

“We person been stranded present for 20 days, and the authorities has shown nary urgency successful restoring the road. The losses are beyond imagination,” helium told Al Jazeera, adding that the authorities should person understood it was the highest harvest play and acted swiftly.

He said the farmers who find their nutrient is rotten unload it silently and instrumentality the roadworthy back, looking for a spot to dispose what erstwhile was their season’s hard work. “Nothing is moving, and with each passing day, our effect is turning into waste.”