Roads blocked in Himachal Pradesh, growers running out of time

MANALI: With weather extremities taking a heavy toll on roads, fruit and vegetable growers in the upper parts of Himachal Pradesh are a worried lot as they are unable to transport their produce to the markets on time.
A large number of roads in the state are either lying blocked or have literally become non-motorable following rains, floods and landslides.
Fearing similar weather fluctuations in the coming days that may leave the roads blocked again, most of the apple growers in Kullu are harvesting the crop as early as possible.A large number of link roads of Kullu which connects hundreds of villages and major apple belts with the national highway are very prone to landslides. This has also encouraged some growers to sell both ripe and raw fruits.
Trucks stranded on Wednesday
In tribal belts of Himachal, almost 50% of vegetable stock has been sold in the markets, but growers are running out of time as the season will last only till October.
Manali-Lahaul, Manali-Spiti, Spiti-Kinnaur, Kullu-Sainj, Kullu-Mandi, Banjar-Anni and hundreds of link roads are getting blocked frequently and thousands of growers in the region are in a fix.
Landslide debris near Rohtang cleared a day later
While vegetables should reach markets within 24 hours after their harvest, apple fetches good price if it reaches the market fresh and fast.
Tonnes of produce remained stuck in villages in the recent days when all the roads were blocked. As some roads are still lying blocked, growers are looking for alternatives.
"Roads in upper Sainj have been damaged. We met the Kullu deputy commissioner, requesting her to do something on the issue. She has directed PWD to repair all the roads as soon as possible. Apple and vegetables are only means of our livelihood. We are spending sleepless nights these days," Mahender Palsara, a resident, said.
Most farmers in Lahaul-Spiti have harvested pea crop. Farmers have grown cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and other vegetables as well. Harvesting of the main cash crop - potato - will start in a few days.
Roshan Lal Sharma, a farmer from Pattan valley of Lahaul, said, "We are unlucky that all roads to Lahaul-Spiti district have either been washed away or blocked by landslides since July. And then are possibilities that heavy snowfall might block the roads in September and October too. This is the time when our crops are ready to be sent to the markets. Every year we suffer huge losses only because of poor condition of roads."