Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Nov 9: The administration is unaware of the mutation of Saffron land that occurred in the recent decade, as assessment of area under Saffron cover ceased following the implementation of the ambitious National Saffron Mission.
Insiders at the Department of Agriculture said they were unsure of actual saffron cover because no new assessment of land use and land cover changes had occurred in the last one decade, and the exact area under Saffron cultivation is unclear. “Unless the Government intervenes, the land cover will continue to decline”, an official said.
Prior to the implementation of the Saffron Mission, the field under saffron cover was 5100 hectares. In its 2010 study, the department discovered just 3715 hectares of saffron-covered fields, representing a loss of around 2200 hectares of land.
According to Choudhary Iqbal, Director Agriculture, the new assessment will provide them with an actual Saffron cover. “A new evaluation will provide us with the true Saffron cover and draft policies accordingly. The Revenue Department must take the call,” he said. He, however, said that assessing land cover is the continuous process. “It happens almost every year, but the Revenue department is not sharing it for unknown reasons,” he said, adding that the biggest challenge is the conversion of Saffron land and steps must be taken to preserve this precious land.
The locals alleged that authorities were acting as mute spectators to the vandalization of the saffron land, as the area has lost a massive portion of land because of the establishment of residential and commercial establishments in the last two decades. With the Government turning a blind eye to the new mutations, the growers said, Saffron cover and production has severely dropped.
Experts said that the unplanned and unregulated construction was ruining the crop and if the administration did not stop the vandalization of fields, no land would be left for the cultivation. “This crop grows at selected places, as it requires specific climatic conditions. Pampore is unique because of the micro-environmental parameters that allow it to flourish. It’s a unique crop that necessitates unique policies. We will lose the crop forever if the land is not conserved,” an expert said.
To avoid the vandalization of this precious land, Revenue officials said that they had prohibited granting Revenue extracts to buyers from outside the town. “This land is our asset,” he said.
He warned people from outside the town who wanted to buy the valuable land for construction. “People from other parts of the Valley, particularly from Srinagar, purchase land here for construction. As a result, we have decided that Revenue extracts will not be issued in favour of people who live outside the town. And all this is being done to stop outsiders from buying land here,” he said, adding that the demolition drives are conducted on regular basis.
He, however, informed no such drill occurred in regions under the authority of the district Srinagar. “A large amount of the land is under residential colonies, and that the area is undergoing a rampant conversion. A full land assessment is required to determine the extent of the damage,” he said.
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