Anti-hail guns saviour for apple farmers

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Bareon Ghat (Shimla), April 15

Apple farmers in the Bareon Ghat and Deorighat apple belt have heaved a sigh of relief from devastating hailstorms that have spelt disaster in other areas as anti-hail guns have successfully kept the hailstorms in their orchards at bay since 2011 when the two guns were installed here.

The fire shots from the anti-hail gun targeted at the black hailstone clouds have successfully quelled these, bringing much sought-after relief to orchardists here since 2011, when this gun was installed, said Roshan Lal Chauhan, orchardist and chairman of the Shimla Himachal Gyan Vigyan Samiti.

“This anti-hail gun is a savior as we have never witnessed hailstone here for the last four years,” added Rubel Amraik from Bareon Ghat and Pramod Chauhan from Dakal-Kiari, the oldest apple-producing area in Kotkhai.

“We used to lose 30 per cent of crop due to hailstorm and suffered huge losses, now hail gun fires as cloud formation starts and effectively disperse it and it rains down harmless sleet or rain but no hailstone,” they added. The guns have saved crops in Panog, Kiari, Bagahar and parts of Rawala Kiara and Khaneti, farmers said.

The hailstones that smashed orchards last week in the Ganasidhar- Baghi belt in Kotkhai, the Sangroli-Dhurla belt of Maroag and the Duindar belt of Hambal in Chopal were not happening from the Bareonghat and Deorighat belt.

Though the company has claimed “anti-hail cover of about 1 km radius”, but the farmers say that the “gun coverage remains within a 500-m radius from the gun point”.

But the Horticulture Department leases out the operation to a private operator for the hailstone period from April-June. The gun shots cost range from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh for three months as gas cylinder cost Rs 250, says Dr Jagdish Sharma, horticulture development officer and in-charge Bareon Ghat anti-hail suppressing system.