Bandipora’s fruit belt hit by hail, officials downplay losses

Bandipora, Apr 06: A severe hailstorm lasting up to 15 minutes, which tore through orchards in the upper belt of the main Bandipora division on Monday evening, in north Kashmir, piercing leaves and tearing flower blooms, has inflicted upto 25 per cent damage to orchards, officials said.

The continued erratic weather turned adverse following massive rains in parts of the district, with hail battering Arin and Bankoot blocks by the evening at around 6 PM.

The hail caused damage to local fruit crops during their critical “full bloom” and “pink bud” phenological stages across the blocks, officials told Greater Kashmir.

According to an official assessment shared by the Horticulture Development Officer, the scale of the destruction varied significantly across the two hit blocks, heavily dependent on the duration of the hailstorm and the specific phenological stage of the crops.

The officials said overall, 11 villages and Panchayats were affected. In Arin block, villages of Shamthan Dardhpora, Nagwani-Barladi, Sumlar-A, and Sumlar-B were battered by a 7-to-15-minute hailstorm, hitting trees at the “full bloom” stage, resulting in 20 to 25 per cent crop damage.

Dardhpora experienced a shorter 2-to-5-minute storm, leaving 5 to 10 per cent damage, while Chontimulla, where crops were at the “pink bud” stage, recorded 5 to 8 per cent damage following 3 to 5 minutes of hail.

Also, Panchayats of Arin-A, Arin-B, and Balhama saw minimal impacts of 3 to 4 per cent after brief 30-second to one-minute hailstorms hitting their full blooms.

In the neighbouring Bonakoot block, crops in full bloom across the villages of Bonakoot-A and Bonakoot-C suffered 15 to 20 per cent damage following 5 to 8 minutes of hail.

Horticulture officials confirmed that the Sumbal division, which boasts a significant horticulture cover across the district, entirely escaped the hailstorm as there was no report of storm anywhere.
A field official assessing the aftermath cautioned that precise evaluations remain challenging due to the current season, but, assured that the damage doesn’t seem huge.

“At this time of the season, although this is the overall damage, orchards are in full bloom, which makes it impossible to do an accurate assessment,” the official said.

“At the fruiting stage, we can assess damage on the basis of percentage in relation to the total number of fruits hit, fallen or safe,” the field official added.

The official said that, so far, the majority of the sustained damage has been to the leaves, prompting the department to issue a targeted advisory.

While local farmers and activists have demanded financial relief, the assessed destruction currently falls short of the criteria for government compensation.

Under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) guidelines, individual damage reports are only triggered if crop losses exceed a 35 per cent threshold.

According to a horticulture official, if the damage were to cross this 35 per cent mark, affected farmers would be entitled to compensation amounting to between 300 and 400 rupees per kanal of orchard.

However, the official noted the current destruction “doesn’t seem to cross the 35 per cent mark.”

Elaborating on the biological impact, Chief Horticulture Officer, Pawan Kumar, noted that apple and stone fruit trees naturally shed the vast majority of their blossoms, meaning authorities do not categorise the current situation as a “commercial loss”.

“Naturally, only 2 to 5 per cent of flowers are pollinated and set fruit, while the rest fall off anyway,” the official said. “If every flower set fruit, the trees would collapse. At this stage, the damage is not substantial.”

To mitigate the impact and treat plant injuries, the horticulture department also issued an official advisory that provides strict chemical treatments for different fruit varieties.

For apple and pear orchards, the department recommends spraying one of the following fungicides per 100 litres of water: 300 grams of Propineb 70% wp or Mancozeb 75% wp; 60 grams of Dodine 65 wp; 125 grams of a Zineb (68%) and Hexaconazole (4%) 72 wp mixture; 300 grams of Zineb 75% wp; or 250 millilitres of a Tubeconazole (6.7%) and captan (26.9) 33.6SC solution.

For stone fruits, including cherry, apricot, plum, and peach orchards, the recommended treatments per 100 litres of water are: 50 grams of either Carbendazim 50 wp or Thiophanate Methyl 70 wp, or 250 grams of a Carbendazim (12%) and Mancozeb (63%) 75% wp mixture.

Alongside the fungicide applications, the advisory strongly urges all orchardists to manually remove fallen leaves and ensure adequate drainage in their fields to prevent water stagnation, which can further fuel disease outbreaks.