{"id":2212,"date":"2025-04-21T04:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T04:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/?p=2212"},"modified":"2025-04-21T04:39:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T04:39:19","slug":"unexpected-hailstorm-damages-agriculture-and-horticulture-in-bani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/?p=2212","title":{"rendered":"Unexpected hailstorm damages agriculture and horticulture in Bani"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BANI, APRIL 21:- A sudden and intense hailstorm in several parts of the Bani region has devastated crops, undoing months of farmers&#8217; hard work. The hailstorm, which lasted for around 5 to 10 minutes, caused significant damage to standing rabi crops and horticulture produce.Hailstones weighing between 20 to 30 grams were reported, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"772\" src=\"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774277-1024x772.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774277-1024x772.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774277-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774277-768x579.jpg 768w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774277.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>which severely damaged the crops in the fields. Locals described the size of the hailstones as resembling plastic pellets.The worst-hit areas include upper Bani regions such as Koti, Chandel, Kanthal, Dhaggar, and Machhwa. Both rabi and kharif crops in these areas suffered extensive damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774163-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774163-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774163-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774163-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774163-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774163-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774163-2048x2048.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sanjay Kumar, AEO agriculture department, said that the garlic crops have been the most affected, along with considerable damage to onion fields. He mentioned that officials are in contact with farmers and assessing the losses, but a precise estimate is currently difficult. He added that hail has also affected nurseries of chili, brinjal, and tomato crops, which were in their early stages and have been heavily damaged by this natural calamity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Shakeel Ahmad, an official from the horticulture department, said fruit crops in their flowering stage\u2014such as apples, plums, and apricots\u2014were the worst affected. This year was expected to yield a bumper harvest, but the hailstorm has caused many flowers and fruits to fall prematurely, damaging several trees. The injuries to plums and apricots have also increased the risk of fungal infections, potentially affecting both the quality and quantity of the produce. Additionally, the drop in temperature has negatively impacted the flowering process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" src=\"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774265-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774265-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774265-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774265-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774265.jpg 1079w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Tilak Raj, a local farmer, said, \u201cMy entire crop and nursery were destroyed in the hailstorm. There\u2019s nothing left in the field\u2014just broken plants and a white layer that looks like snow. I\u2019ve never witnessed such intense hail before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"559\" src=\"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774263-1024x559.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774263-1024x559.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774263-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774263-768x419.jpg 768w, https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1001774263.jpg 1056w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Madan Lal, a horticulture farmer, said, \u201cI had planted around 100 trees on my land, including apple, plum, and apricot trees. The hailstorm ruined everything. Small fruits fell to the ground and got destroyed, and the branches of the trees were also broken. This has caused severe losses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BANI, APRIL 21:- A sudden and intense hailstorm in several parts of the Bani region has devastated crops, undoing months of farmers&#8217; hard work. The hailstorm, which lasted for around 5 to 10 minutes, caused significant damage to standing rabi crops and horticulture produce.Hailstones weighing between 20 to 30 grams were reported, which severely damaged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bani","category-jammu-kashmir","category-kathua","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2212"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221,"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions\/2221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baniupdatenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}