Strange Turf War

A growing conflict between apple orchardists and poplar planters in Kashmir reveals deeper cracks in the rural land governance. The law is unclear, the trees are tall, and trust is withering.

- Mohammad Amin Mir

Picture two adjacent plots in a Kashmir village. One is an apple orchard, carefully cultivated over years. The other is a line of poplars, fast-growing, profit-friendly trees often planted for timber.

As the poplars shoot up, reaching 60 to 80 feet in just a decade, they begin casting long shadows over the orchard. Their leaves fall, roots stretch wide, and presence begins to impact the yield next door.

The orchard owner files a complaint. He says the shade is stunting his apples, the leaf fall is encouraging pests, and the roots are draining water from his soil. The poplar grower says it’s his land. He can do what he wants.

This isn’t just a local spat. It’s a signal of a slowly spreading tension across rural India as land use patterns shift, climate pressures build, and farming becomes less about food and more about returns.

Agriculture in Kashmir still employs around 60% of the population. The valley grows over 20 lakh metric tonnes of apples every year, contributing nearly 75% to India’s apple production.

At the same time, timber demand has created a poplar boom. Farmers are incentivised to plant fast-yielding trees, sometimes harvesting them in 10 to 12 years for plywood, packaging, and matchstick industries.

Schemes like the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) have pushed orchard expansion. Meanwhile, the poplar trade has turned timber into a second income stream for families.

Yet when these two models meet on opposite sides of a boundary, conflict follows.

At the heart of it is a legal and administrative vacuum.

The Jammu & Kashmir Land Revenue Act, 1996 (Samvat), gives landowners the right to use their land within its agricultural classification.