Farmers in India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) are intentionally letting their apples rot in a bid to discourage the valley’s most profitable export as bitterness towards the Indian government grows.
According to a report by AFP, farmers are purposely sabotaging the crop, vital to the local economy, in protest against Modi’s government.
At an orchard in central Shopian district, Ghulam Nabi Malik and his brother usually sell 7,000 boxes of apples per year earning them some seven million rupees (nearly $100,000). Their land is now idle, with branches drooping under the weight of unpicked fruit.
“Let it rot on the trees,” Malik said, adding, “To leave the ripe apples rotting on the trees is the only form of protest we can do under the current circumstances.”
Malik said that harvesting would allow the Indian government “to tell the world that everything is fine in Kashmir” and he wants the world to know that everything is far from fine.
In early August, the Indian Government revoked Article 370 which granted special status to IoK. Troops were deployed in the region and all communication in the valley was blocked, cutting off Kashmiris from the outside world. Thousands of civilians and political leaders have been arrested and protests have raged since.
Pro-independence fighters have pasted posters outside mosques, appealing to orchard owners not to harvest and instead join the protest.
The fertile Himalayan region usually sells apple worth hundreds of million dollars each year, and more than half of Kashmiris are engaged directly or indirectly in cultivation.
