‘Gone to waste’: Kashmir growers watch apples rot as key highway is blocked

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–Sr