Shopian: One of Kashmir’s biggest mulberry nurseries, at Losedenow village in Shopian district, has been such a victim of official apathy that with every passing day it’s land is shrinking while illegal encroachments are growing.
Once spread over a hundred kanals, the land has shrunk to a fraction of it, said an official of the sericulture department. He added that many illegal encroachments, including by the government itself, have come up on the nursery land.
According to official data, around 10,000 mulberry trees are planted in this vast orchard which is still spread over five hectares of land.
A local, wishing not to be named, said, “First the local encroachers were not stopped by the authorities and then the government paved the way for destruction of this mulberry garden by building a hospital and a high school on its land, which further shrank its area.”
An employee posted here said that on three sides of the nursery are roads and whenever the road widening occurs, land of the nursery is taken from both sides. He said that many encroachments have been done by people who own orchards that have steadily encroached on the nursery.
An official posted here said that another attempt of illegal encroachment was made recently but this time the authorities took swift action to stop it. However, the encroached land is still lying with the occupiers, the official said.
Experts believe that this Losedenow nursery could be a game changer amidst the declining silk industry in Kashmir. Showkat Ahmad, a field employee of the sericulture department for 20 years, said that given the location and huge area of this nursery, it could revive the silk industry in the entire region, only if fencing is built and resources properly utilised.
The Tehsil officer for sericulture in Shopian said that this year, silkworms were distributed among 75 farmers after the larvae hatched at Losedenow nursery. The number of silk farmers, he said, was fewer than previous years due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Deputy Director for sericulture in Shopian, Muhammad Ashraf, told Kashmir Reader that there are 1,000 kanals of land under sericulture in Shopian. He admitted that land of the Losedenow nursery has been encroached upon by many people in the past and recently as well. “The locals have looted the land and recently we lodged an FIR in this regard,” he said.
When asked about fencing of the nursery and retrieving of the encroached land, he said that they have taken up this matter with director sericulture and are eagerly waiting for an action plan.

Raashid Hassan