Video Of Kashmir Farmer Crying Over Destroyed Apple Produce Due To Snowfall Is Heartbreaking

When we hear snowfall, we think a breathtaking blanket of pristine white snow that turns any place into a winter wonderland. If you’ve seen Kashmir during snowfall, it is a magical sight you’ll never forget. However, the season’s first snowfall that hit Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand arrived a tad too early, and brought along with it blackouts and unprecedented damage to crops.

Orchards across Kashmir were covered in snow, causing massive damage to the painstakingly grown apples by farmers.

Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah took to Twitter to highlight the plight of apple growers after the snow damaged apple trees.

Massive damage to apple trees. This will further cripple an economy that is already distressed. I request @jandkgovernor to instruct the administration to assess the damage & ensure adequate compensation to the horticulturalists who have been affected. pic.twitter.com/GXfVp0CneV

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 4, 2018

On Sunday, the Met Department declared minimum temperatures across Kashmir Valley dropping below freezing point. Srinagar recorded the season’s coldest night so far at -0.4°C. The unprecedented snowfall led to a power outage that plunged the Valley into darkness.

In response to Omar Abdullah’s tweet, a Twitter user shared a video of an apple grower shovelling aside snow with his bare hands in his orchard, and sobbing over his now destroyed apple produce.

Sir plz see this heart wrenching video, massive damage due to snow in south #Kashmir pic.twitter.com/DufDmZgm8S

— Umar Ganie (@UmarGanie1) November 4, 2018

The heartbreaking video, which soon went viral, was said to be of a farmer from Shopian in South Kashmir.

Sad to see this video from Keller in Shopian of South Kashmir. This is a farmer who owns an Apple orchard. Fresh heavy snowfall covered his entire orchard in white but also ruined the fresh produce of apples that were left in open. He is crying his heart out while removing snow. pic.twitter.com/LaFdrWopBB

— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) November 4, 2018

This man’s spirits are completely crushed. His apple crop awaiting packing is buried under the snow & all his efforts over the summer, his investment in tree oil & other treatments has been for nothing. It’s no wonder he’s weeping the way he is. #tragic https://t.co/kUPAbl2xGa

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 4, 2018

NDTV reported on the extent of damage that the snowfall had caused to Kashmir’s annual apple trade.

According to the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries, the apple cultivators’ losses has been estimated at over Rs. 500 crore. An industry insider was quoted,

“The annual turnover of the Kashmir apple trade is over Rs. 5,000 crore. The apple production this year was supposed to be around 20,000 metric tonnes, but snowfall has damaged a part of it. Fortunately, about half the produce had already been dispatched to various mandis across the country before the snowstorm occurred.”

However, the apple growers are inconsolable in their devastating losses.

Their livelihoods have been badly hit, and their expected income of 4-10 lakhs from the selling their painstakingly cultivated apple produce has been burried rotten beneath the early snowfall.