Bandipora, Sept 9: Heavy and regular rains in the past two months here have badly hit the production and quality of chestnuts in Wular Lake.

 Wular Lake, which is the only source of chestnut in J&K, according to experts, yields a yearly production of 4,000-5,000 tons of chestnuts. “But this year the production is likely to go down by at least 50 per cent,” experts and local extractors said.

 “We were expecting more than 6000 tons production this year but the consistent rains have damaged the chestnut crop,” said Ghulam Muhammad Kawa, adding that the increasing water level in the lake due to rains was the main the man cause for the decline in the production.

 Chestnut extractors said the pollution in the lake had also caused many diseases to the chestnut plants. “The growing pollution in the lake has worsened the problem and further threatened to decline the growth” said Muhammad Sikander Dar.

 Extractors appealed to the government to rush a team of experts to the area. “We appeal the government for the compensation as we are poor and chestnut extraction is our only source of income,” said Skinder.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 9 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 9 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST