Fruitless crop: Hailstorm, rain destroy fruit orchards in Galiyat region

Disrupt flow of traffic on the main Abbottabad-Murree Road.

ABBOTABAD:

A hailstorm coupled with heavy rain destroyed fruit orchards in the Galiyat region on Saturday morning, according to residents and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) agriculture department.

Heavy rain and a hailstorm hit Nathia Gali, Ayubia, Donga Gali, Khera Gali and surrounding hilly areas. The hailstorm destroyed standing crops of apricot, plum, walnut, apple, peach and pears, rendering great losses to farmers.

An owner of a plum and apricot orchard, Sardar Khalid Khan, said the hailstorm lasted for over an hour, followed by heavy rain which brought down the unripe fruit, causing him a loss of hundreds of thousands of rupees.

“Those left on the trees have partially rotted,” he said, adding farmers were delighted at the bumper crop this season, but the extreme weather conditions ruined it.

Rafiq Raja, a resident of Namli Maira, reiterated Khan’s feelings on the conditions, which also forced him to bear a loss of plums and peaches in his orchard.

Moreover, the rain and hailstorm disrupted the flow of traffic on the main Abbottabad-Murree Road for half an hour. However, traffic later normalised, shared the police and locals.

Meanwhile, the rest of Hazara division including Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Kohistan, Torghar and Kagan Valley received rain which provided relief from the present heat spell.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2014.