Migrant Workers Exodus Triggered By Targeted Killings Is Bad News For Kashmir's Apple Farmers

The apple harvest season in the Kashmir valley was in full swing until recently and with a good crop this year, the farmers had hoped to ship out large quantities of fruits to different states in the country.

Districts like Shopian, Baramulla, Anantnag, and Ganderbal are known for producing good apples.

Shopian alone accounts for nearly 3 lakh metric tonnes of apple every year.

The apple season becoming horrific,farmers while working in their orchards during night as There is serious advisory about snowfall on 23rd. @islahmufti @rifatabdullahh pic.twitter.com/4l8OX06lMp

¡ª Ajaz dar (@Aeijaz_Dar) October 21, 2021

While fruit growers have already sent early varieties of apples outside the state and to the local markets of the Valley, varieties like American, Maharaji and Chamboora are still in the orchards.

Sudden shortage of workers

Harvesting them is now looking increasingly difficult for the farmers, due to a sudden shortage of workers.

BCCL

That is because a large section of the migrant workers, who contributed to the workforce in the apple farms have already left the valley or are desperately trying to flee at the earliest.

Recent killings rattled workers

The recent targeted killings of migrant workers in Kashmir have rattled them so much, that the only thing they want now is to out alive.

An estimated three to four lakh migrant labourers from different parts of the country come to the Valley every year in early March for skilled and unskilled jobs such as masonry, carpentry, and farming, and go back home before the onset of winter in November.

BCCL

A large number of them are employed in apple orchards, especially during this time of the year, when some of the varieties that are grown in the valley become ripe.

The non-locals, engaged in apple orchards used to spend around six months in the Valley before returning home.

But this time many have left early.

Exactly, i saw some non local yesterday at TRC, each of them had apple boxes along. Though that was so gloomy to see them leaving Kashmir in this way! https://t.co/g63hLfJhon

¡ª Sabahat Bashir (@BashirSabahat) October 19, 2021

The exodus started after the killing of Sageer Ansari from Saharanpur (UP) in Pulwama on October 16 and that of Raja Reshi Dev and Joginder Rishi Dev - both from Bihar- in adjacent Kulgam on October 17 triggered panic among workers from other states, especially those working in the volatile south Kashmir region.

Eleven civilians were killed in targeted attacks in Jammu and Kashmir this month alone.

"We are leaving Kashmir earlier than usual... There is too much fear, " Mithilesh Kumar from Bihar told PTI

"Nobody told us to leave but who will be responsible if someone among us gets killed. One moment we are told security will be provided and the next we are on our own," said Deepak Kumar from Bihar's Madhubani district.

BCCL

It is not just migrant workers who are leaving the valley, even many non-Kashmiri traders who had come to the valley to buy apples have reportedly left in the past few days.

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