Tension along International Border: Farmers rush to wrap up harvest
Suchetgarh (J-K), May 6 (PTI) Farmers living along the nearly 200-km-long International Border in Jammu and Kashmir are racing against time to complete the harvest process amid heightened tension following the Pahalgam terror attack.
In the three districts of Jammu, Samba, and Kathua, about 1.25 lakh hectares of agricultural land falls within the shelling range of Pakistan.
Villages like Treva, Mahashe-de-Kothe, Chandu Chak, Gharana, Bulla Chak, and Korotana Kalan are witnessing a flurry of activity, with families working day and night to finish harvesting, dry the grain, and pack it for delivery to mills.
While over 90 percent of the wheat and other crops have been harvested, the process of harvesting the rest, packaging them and sending them to mills remains.
“We are racing against time to complete harvesting,” Santosh Singh, a 50-year farmer from Treva village in the Arnia sector said, adding “there is very little time left.”
Treva, located just 1.5 km from the border, is directly under threat from Pakistan Rangers.
Since the April 22 Pahalgam attack that left 26 people dead, the farming community in Treva is anxious and authorities have responded with urgency.
“An alert has been sounded. The tehsildar has arranged 20 harvesters to speed up the harvesting process. Ninety-five percent of the harvesting has already been completed in these belts,” another farmer from Treva, Rakesh Kumar told PTI here.
“We live in a danger zone. Every time shelling starts, we face death and destruction”, he said.
Radhika Devi, who belongs to a farmers’ family of village Suchetgarh, said her family had packed over 300 bags of wheat in just a few days.
