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Kashmiri apple growers don’t get a fair price. They don’t even have the chance to demand a fair price like Indian farmers. Even then they do the gardens very carefully. The family makes a living from this garden all year round.
The Kashmir Valley has been almost isolated from the rest of the country since the state’s special status was abolished last year. The tourism industry has also declined. So some of the locals focused on tending the vegetable garden, which has been cherished for generations, so that they could earn some money during the winter season. But before their eyes, they saw the garden fill with dust.
They have worked tirelessly over the past decades to create these apple orchards. This time it has been reduced to dust under the government bulldozer. Al Jazeera, NDTV and Anandabazar have published special reports on this.
More than 10,000 apple trees have been cut down in the valley at the behest of the Jammu and Kashmir administration, according to the report.
The destruction of the apple trees began mainly in the surrounding areas, including Kanidajan in the Badgam district of central Kashmir. Gurjar and Bakharwal, these two Muslim nomadic groups live there. These two groups were recognized as programmed tribes in 1991. The forest department has carried out slaughter in its apple orchards. People from those two groups had been living in mud huts in the area for so long. They have also been demolished.
Abdul Gani Wag, a 60-year-old local resident, said the apple tree massacre started in November without anyone noticing. Abdul owns a large piece of land 50 km from Srinagar. I used to grow apples on it.
Abdul Ghani claimed that he was at his home on the morning of November 10. Suddenly he heard that a group of people had come into his garden with axes and saws. He hurried there. But when he went, he saw that people were cutting down trees indiscriminately under the supervision of the police and the CRPF.
Abdul Gani said that he had 50 trees in the apple orchard. The family depended on him. He has 6 daughters. He also appealed to the police about the future of the girls. But it was in vain. Instead, he learned from his father 50 years ago that the trees he had planted with his bare hands fell to the ground one by one.
According to sources in the valley media, on November 10, some 10,000 apple trees were cut down in the valley during the day under the supervision of 50 customs officials.
The village foreman, Mohammad Ahsan, said that many locals opposed logging. But they were forced to withdraw, threatening to sue if they interfered with the government’s work. The branches of the apple tree are very thin and smooth. The ax does not have the strength to withstand a blow or two.
An apple grower, who did not want to be named, recounted the news that he used to spend all day in the apple orchard. But after 20 days, I didn’t set foot in the apple orchard. After cutting down the trees, the garden is in full swing. I no longer have the strength to go there.
The government claims that Kashmir apple orchards are built on forest land. Gurjar and Bakharwal have been growing apples there for seven years. Not only these Gurjars and Bakharwals, more than a million registered tribes and forest dwellers in the country enjoy the Forest Rights Act. In other words, just as they have the right to live in the forest, they also have the right to live there. They also enjoy paper land ownership.
There was a time when a state existed, but in Jammu and Kashmir the law has not yet been implemented. After repealing article 370 of the constitution, which was reserved for the Valley last year, 155 central laws automatically went into effect there. The Jammu and Kashmir administration at the time ensured that the Forest Rights Act would be implemented there as well. “If the survey is completed before January 15, 2021, the Forest Rights Law will take effect in the Valley in March,” said BVR Subramaniam, then the Valley’s chief secretary.
The locals allege that political motives and religious hatred are behind the demolition of thousands of apple trees and the eviction of the locals. Today, around 2 million people from the Gurjar and Bakharwal groups live in the valley. These two groups constitute 12 percent of the total population of the valley. They are the third largest community after Kashmiris and Dogras.
Sources: Anandabazar, NDTV and Al Jazeera
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