For Kashmir's apple farmers, hailstorms now threaten more than fruit

Repeated hailstorms are battering Jammu and Kashmir's apple belt during crucial fruit-setting season, raising fears that climate change could reshape the Valley's most important horticulture industry

In the apple orchards of south Kashmir, the scars of this season are already visible. Across Shopian, Kulgam, Pulwama and parts of Bandipora, repeated hailstorms over the past several weeks have battered young fruit, shredded leaves and damaged branches at a critical stage of crop development. Growers say the storms have become alarmingly frequent, striking with a ferocity they cannot recall from earlier years.

 

For Kashmir's apple farmers, hail is no longer an occasional hazard. It is increasingly becoming a recurring threat.

 

“This year has been unprecedented. I have never seen hailstorms this intense in Kashmir,” said Javed Ahmad Bhat, president of the District Fruit Growers Association, Pulwama. “The orchards have suffered between 50 and 70 per cent losses due to multiple hailstorm spells. The production this year will definitely be hit.”

 

 

The concern extends far beyond individual orchards. Apple cultivation is the backbone of Jammu and Kashmir’s rural economy. The Valley produces more than two million metric tonnes of apples annually and accounts for the bulk of India’s domestic apple output. Any disruption reverberates through growers, labourers, transporters, traders, and packaging industries.

 

Recent extreme weather has already highlighted the vulnerability of the sector. In 2025, floods and transport disruptions caused losses estimated at ₹600-700 crore for Kashmir’s apple industry, according to industry estimates cited by Reuters.

 

A rise in destructive hailstorms

 

Research conducted in Jammu and Kashmir over the past decade has documented an increase in hailstorm occurrences and the expansion of vulnerable zones across the Valley. Community surveys and meteorological analyses have increasingly linked the trend to changing climate conditions and shifts in weather systems affecting the western Himalayas.

 

Extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, flash floods, heatwaves and thunderstorms have become increasingly frequent in Jammu and Kashmir, mirroring a broader global trend. According to a NITI Aayog report, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 2,863 extreme weather events between 2010 and 2022.

 

Ajaz Rashid, a local agri entrepreneur, said the impact of severe hailstorms extends far beyond a single season's harvest. Unlike minor weather-related losses, intense hail can scar branches, damage trunks and weaken entire trees, affecting productivity for years.

 

“The hailstorms we are witnessing now are far more destructive. They damage not only the fruit but also the branches and the plants themselves,” Rashid told Business Standard.

 

The changing weather pattern has taken a heavy toll on the region's horticulture sector. In 2023, unseasonal rainfall and hailstorms wiped out nearly half of Kashmir's cherry crop, while other fruit crops also suffered significant losses in both yield and quality.

 

Farmers say the change has become especially visible during the past two years.

 

“Earlier, hailstorms occurred once in a season or in isolated pockets,” said Haji Ghulam Ahmad Dar, a fruit trader associated with the Pulwama fruit mandi. “Now we are seeing repeated spells. In many apple-growing areas of south Kashmir, especially Shopian, the destruction has been widespread. Some orchards have suffered 70 to 80 per cent damage.”

 

The economic consequences can be devastating.

 

“The apples struck by hailstorms become lower-grade fruit,” explained Bhat. “Farmers often cannot even recover the costs of packaging and transportation because prices fall sharply. Many are forced to leave the damaged fruit in the orchards.”

 

Why the storms are arriving at the worst possible time

 

The timing of these hailstorms is proving particularly destructive.

 

The period between March and June is among the most sensitive phases of the apple production cycle. During these months, trees flower, pollination takes place, and young fruit begins to develop. Any severe weather event can directly reduce yields months before harvest.

 

Climate scientists say warming temperatures and changing weather patterns are increasingly colliding with this critical window.

 

“Warming temperatures are causing fruit trees to flower earlier,” said Dr Indu K Murthy, principal research scientist and head of the climate, environment and sustainability sector at the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP). “Western disturbances are now arriving later and are erratic, colliding with the flowering and fruit-setting window between March and June. While warming is pulling the biological cycle in one direction, it is disrupting weather patterns in another, with farmers and their crop harvest caught in between.”

 

Western disturbance — moisture-laden weather systems originating over the Mediterranean region — are crucial to Jammu and Kashmir’s climate. But scientists say their behaviour is becoming increasingly unpredictable, bringing intense rainfall, thunderstorms and hail during periods that were once relatively stable.

 

Climate change and the hailstorm connection

 

Experts caution that no individual hailstorm can be directly attributed to climate change. However, they say climate change is increasing the likelihood of conditions that produce more destructive hail events.

 

“Climate change intensifies the conditions that favour hailstorms,” Dr Murthy said. “Warmer air holds more moisture and energy, increasing atmospheric instability and strengthening the convective updrafts needed to form large hail. What scientists are seeing most clearly are bigger, more damaging hailstones falling, and storm seasons shifting and stretching.”

 

She added that while some hailstones melt before reaching the ground because of rising temperatures, the overall trend toward severe hail events is becoming harder to ignore.

 

Scientists note that Kashmir’s geography makes it particularly vulnerable.

 

Located in the Himalayas, the Valley is warming faster than many lowland regions. Rising temperatures, retreating glaciers, altered precipitation patterns and increasingly erratic western disturbances are amplifying weather extremes across the region.

 

“The region is increasingly experiencing a combination of heatwaves, cloudbursts, flash floods and severe storms,” Murthy said.

 

Farmers count mounting losses

 

For growers, the science is now visible in their balance sheets.

 

Amir Shafi, an orchardist with around 2,000 apple trees, estimates that hailstorms have destroyed nearly two-thirds of his crop this year.

 

“About 60 to 70 per cent of the crop has been damaged,” he said. “Last year, I sold around 1,000 crates. This year it will be much less.”

 

Shafi says he spent nearly ₹5 lakh on fertilisers, pesticides and orchard management before the storms struck. “This year I may not even recover my expenses,” he said.

 

Like many growers, Shafi had applied for government-supported anti-hail nets. “I applied seven months ago through the horticulture department,” he said. Yet, he says, his application remains pending.

 

Another farmer from rural Pulwama, Mohd Shafi, said it’s very expensive to buy anti-hail nets, especially for traditional delicious variety apple orchards.

 

“It’s becoming increasingly impossible to cultivate apples without anti-hail net protection, with relentless hailstorms that now occur with almost weekly frequency,” he said.

 

“Hail nets are expensive and poor farmers cannot afford them,” said Bhat of Pulwama fruit growers association. “The government support available is far too limited. Anti-hail net coverage in a few selected areas makes little difference when the entire fruit belt is facing the same threat.” 

 

Hailstorm at an apple orchard in Kashmir (Photo: By special arrangement) 

The race for protection

 

The growing threat of hail is accelerating a broader transformation underway in Jammu and Kashmir's apple sector. Over the past decade, thousands of growers have shifted from traditional orchards to high-density apple plantations based largely on Italian cultivation models.

 

Unlike conventional orchards, high-density plantations use imported rootstocks, intensive management practices and support structures that can be integrated with anti-hail netting systems.

 

The model offers higher productivity, earlier fruiting and better fruit quality. Increasingly, it also offers something else: protection from extreme weather.

 

According to Ajaz Rashid, this shift is increasingly driven by climate realities rather than just higher productivity.

 

“With weather becoming more unpredictable, especially in lower-altitude areas, growers are moving towards high-density orchards where imported varieties such as Gala can be cultivated and protected more effectively,” said Rashid, who specializes in setting up high-density orchids.

 

An industry at a crossroads

 

The stakes are enormous.

 

According to grower associations, Jammu and Kashmir produced roughly 23-24 lakh metric tonnes of apples last year, compared with about 21 lakh metric tonnes the previous year. The industry supports hundreds of thousands of families and contributes significantly to the Valley’s economy.

 

“A lot of Kashmir’s economy depends on the fruit industry,” Bhat said. “Frequent hailstorms will impact the entire economy.”

 

For now, orchardists are hoping the remainder of the season remains stable. But many fear that the weather pattern emerging across the Valley is not an anomaly but a warning.

 

If the storms continue to intensify, the future of traditional apple cultivation in Jammu and Kashmir may increasingly depend not only on what farmers grow, but on how quickly they can adapt to a changing climate.