Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – A distraught Javid Ahmad Bhat fears he may lose the entire year’s earnings from the apples he grows.
Two trucks bearing his apples worth more than $10,000 are among rows of stranded carriers that stretch for miles along a key highway connecting his city, Baramullah, in Indian-administered Kashmir to the remainder of India. Their tarpaulin covers bulge with crates of fruits that have begun to blacken and collapse under the weight of rot.
“All our hard work for the entire year has gone to waste. What we painstakingly nurtured since the spring is lost. No one will buy these rotten apples, and they will never reach New Delhi. We are left with no choice but to throw away both truckloads along the highway,” Bhat told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
The Jammu–Srinagar national highway – the only all-weather road connection in the Himalayan region – has been repeatedly blocked since August 24 after rain-triggered landslides damaged a section of it. For more than a month, the region has been battered by a severe monsoon fury, killing at least 170 people and causing extensive damage to properties, roads, and other infrastructure.
Blockade during peak harvest season
Horticulture forms the backbone of Indian-administered Kashmir’s economy, with the valley producing about 20–25 million metric tonnes of apples every year – roughly 78 percent of India’s total apple output, according to data Al Jazeera collected from fruit growers’ associations.
The highway blockade coincides with the peak harvest season in Kashmir, locally called “harud”, during which apples, walnuts and rice are gathered from thousands of orchards and fields across the valley.
“It’s not just me or my village – this crisis [road closure] is hitting all of Kashmir’s apple growers. Our entire livelihood depends on this harvest,” said Bhat, calling it a second blow to the region’s economy this year after the Pahalgam attack in April, when suspected rebels killed 28 people, severely disrupting tourism – another key sector in the valley.
A local government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said about 4,000 trucks have been stranded on the highway at Qazigund area in southern Kashmir’s Anantnag district for two weeks, and the fruit loaded on them has begun to rot, resulting in estimated losses of nearly $146m.
In protest, growers shut down fruit markets across Kashmir on Monday and Tuesday as they condemned the government’s inability to clear the key road.
“If the highway stays blocked for even a few more days, our losses will skyrocket beyond imagination,” Ishfaq Ahmad, a fruit grower in Sopore town, told Al Jazeera.
Sopore in Baramulla district, about 45km (28 miles) from Srinagar, is home to Asia’s largest fruit market. But the sprawling complex was a scene of despair on Tuesday. Fresh apple crates remained piled up in an endless wait, as each passing day reduced their value, or worse, brought them closer to rotting. Some estimates said the price of an apple box had already fallen from 600 rupees ($7) to 400 rupees ($5).
“We have stopped bringing more apples to the market here. We are forced to leave them at the orchards because there is no space left, and the trucks that left earlier are still stranded on the highway,” said Ahmad.
‘Nothing is moving’
Fayaz Ahmad Malik, president of the Kashmir fruit growers’ association, said about 10 percent of the trucks left for New Delhi on Tuesday after a 20-day standstill on the highway, but thousands remain stuck.
“Our preliminary estimates already run into crores [millions],” he said, adding that the government failed to take prompt action when the highway closure first began, worsening the crisis.
To address the crisis, Manoj Sinha, the region’s top official appointed by New Delhi, on September 15 launched a dedicated train from Budgam station in the central part of Indian-administered Kashmir to New Delhi to transport the fruit, claiming the move would “significantly reduce transit time, increase income opportunities for thousands of farmers, and boost the agricultural economy of the region”.
“It’s essentially a parcel coach linked to a passenger train, not a full-fledged goods train,” a railway official told Al Jazeera, on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, adding that the train can carry about 23-24 tonnes of produce each day.
But farmers say the measure offers only limited relief to growers in Kashmir, who produce nearly two million tonnes of apples every year.
“It [the special train] is a positive move, but with such capacity, it will only carry roughly one truckload of apples per day, which is far less than what the growers need,” Shakeel Ahmad, an official at a fruit market in Shopian district, told Al Jazeera.
As anger and frustration over the stalled trucks mount, the region’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has limited administrative powers in a region controlled directly by New Delhi, on Tuesday said if the federal government cannot keep the highway operational, its control should be handed over to him.
“We have been patient, waiting for daily assurances that the restoration would be completed, but nothing has been done. Enough is enough,” Abdullah said, speaking to reporters on September 15 in Srinagar, the region’s largest city.
Meanwhile, in a post on X on September 16, Nitin Gadkari, the federal minister for road transport and highways, said more than 50 earthmovers have been deployed in a round-the-clock operation to clear and repair the Jammu-Srinagar highway.
“We are determined to restore this vital national highway to full strength at the earliest, ensuring safety and convenience for all road users,” he wrote.
But the minister’s assurances provide little comfort to Shabir Ahmad, a truck driver at Qazigund, who climbs into his van every morning to inspect the apple boxes.
“We have been stranded here for 20 days, and the government has shown no urgency in restoring the road. The losses are beyond imagination,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the authorities should have understood it was the peak harvest season and acted swiftly.
He said the farmers who find their produce is rotten unload it silently and take the road back, looking for a place to dispose what once was their season’s hard work. “Nothing is moving, and with each passing day, our fruit is turning into waste.”
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