In early spring, as orchards in rural Kashmir were starting to bud, high school student Mehwish Muzafar was traveling to take an exam and catching up on WhatsApp messages when she read there were surveyors in her home village of Reshipora.

They were there to demarcate apple farms for the construction of the 27-kilometer (18-mile) railway line which would connect the Kashmiri towns of Awantipora and Shopian. She said the news shocked her so much that she fainted.

And back in the village, her mother Dilshada Begum and many of her neighbors rushed to their land to protect the orchards they had cultivated for many years.

"This land and these orchards are our heritage," Dilshada told DW. "These orchards earn us about 1,200,000 rupees ($14,000, €13.500) annually, which we depend on to support our family."

Dilshada and her ailing husband have raised four daughters on their orchard income. And they are not the only ones. She said the affected orchards are owned by some 300 families of the Reshipora hamlet, and the farmers will be left with nothing if the trees are uprooted for the railway expansion.

Apple farmers in the region told DW they were never notified about the survey. Instead, men with drones and other equipment simply appeared on their land. When questioned, they told the farmers they were researching a planned railway route through the Himalayan region.

Local official Nisar Ahmad Wani said authorities were "working to mitigate........

© Deutsche Welle