By Aamir Wani

Every autumn, as the orchards of Shopian, Pulwama, and Sopore glow with red and gold apples, Kashmir prepares for its most important season.

Families gather to pluck fruit, pack wooden crates, and load them onto trucks bound for markets in Delhi, Mumbai, and beyond.

This is the moment when months of labour meet the promise of reward.

But, year after year, that promise is broken on the narrow bends of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

The highway, Kashmir’s fair-weather road to the rest of India, has become the most fragile link in the region’s economy.

Some years, rain triggers landslides near Ramban. Other years, roadwork or tunnel blasting brings long closures.

Whatever the official explanation, the result is painfully familiar.

Truckloads of apples sit for days, sometimes weeks, until........

© Kashmir Observer