Miscreants damage apple bearing orchards in Bijbehara
Anantnag: Three families of Kandipora village in Bijbehara Tehsil of Anantnag district on Monday said that their orchards have been damaged by some miscreants who have cut off fruit bearing trees.
The victims identified as Mohammad Ramzan Bhat, Nazeer Ahmad and Mohammad Ashraf said that around 150 apple bearing trees cultivated on around 3 kanals of land have been damaged.
The trees have been cut by using cutter and trees have been cut from the stem, they said.
“We had been investing a lot on our orchards and had put the best of our efforts expecting better returns in the future. But all our hopes stand dashed,” the victims said.
“We don’t know who did this and why,” they said, adding that they just know that there is some family dispute between those who sold us this land some 40 years back.
The owners say it will take them 10-15 more years for developing the apple orchard they had set up.
“We were spending our day and night to make the orchard fruitful for us since last 15 years but today by cutting our apple trees it seems that our entire family has been slain,” they said.
“A tree is like a child. Imagine you love and nourish a child and when he reaches an age where he can help you, someone comes and kills him. For the past 10-15 years, we had been growing them: fertilizing, watering and doing labour. They were giving apples already. Now, we have to wait for 10-15 more years again,” the victims said.
They demanded that matter must be investigated and action must be taken against the culprits besides compensation be provided to the effected families.
A police official said they have registered a case and launched investigations.
He said that a case (FIR No 72/2023 under section 427,447, 436, 147) has been registered in this regard and a team has been constituted to investigate the matter.
“The culprits will be identified, booked and punished,” he said.
Jahangeer Ganaie
