Pampore, Indian-administered Kashmir – At 4am, earlier than the primary name to prayer echoes by Pampore’s saffron fields within the Pulwama district of Indian-administered Kashmir, 52-year-old Bashir Ahmad Bhat steps out with a flashlight.
The crisp air carries the scent of soil, however his coronary heart sinks – his valuable saffron corms, nurtured for months, lie ravaged, devoured in a single day.
“It’s like a conflict,” Bashir says, his voice crammed with exasperation. “We fought local weather change, fought low market costs.”
“However who would have thought we’d must combat porcupines?”
For generations, farmers like Bashir have cultivated saffron in Pampore, the center of India’s saffron trade and the third-largest on this planet after Iran and Afghanistan.
The land right here is taken into account sacred by locals, producing among the world’s best saffron with an unmatched 8.72 p.c crocin content material. Crocin determines saffron’s color and antioxidant worth: the upper the worth, the higher the standard. Kashmir’s saffron has a deep crimson hue and powerful aroma.
These farmers have confronted a variety of challenges and have outlasted them – from a greater than three-decade-long lethal battle between armed separatists and Indian safety forces, to smuggling and adulteration of saffron because it heads to world markets, affecting costs for producers.
But, in recent times, the world’s most costly spice faces a brand new and sudden menace in Kashmir: the Indian crested porcupine.
A rising menace at nighttime
As soon as confined to the area’s forests, the porcupines – a protected species in Jammu and Kashmir – have ventured into saffron farms, pushed by deforestation, habitat loss and local weather change. Not like different rodents, these nocturnal creatures dig deep into the earth, looking for out saffron bulbs for meals.
Kashmir’s saffron manufacturing was already struggling. Battered by erratic rainfall, insufficient irrigation and concrete encroachment on farmland, it had plummeted from 15.97 metric tonnes in 1997-98 to simply 3.48 metric tonnes in 2021-22.
However over the previous 5 to seven years, farmers say the devastating harm wrought by porcupines has compounded the disaster. They report shedding as much as 30 p.c of their crops yearly to porcupines.
By 2024, federal authorities knowledge confirmed Kashmir’s saffron yield had fallen to 2.6 metric tonnes, placing in danger a $45m trade that sustains 32,000 households throughout the area.
Ahmad estimates that he has misplaced at the least 300,000 Indian rupees [$3,500] price of saffron up to now two years on account of porcupines. “At first, we thought it was stray animals. However after we began discovering porcupine quills across the fields, we knew the issue was larger.”
Failed options
The area’s forest division, recognising the rising infestation, tried an natural repellent spray final 12 months. Farmers hoped it could preserve the porcupines at bay.
“It labored for some time, however they got here again,” says 45-year-old Abdul Rashid, one other farmer from the world. “They dig even deeper now, as if they’ve tailored.”
Some farmers have resorted to conventional strategies: putting thorny bushes round their fields, organising floodlights and even patrolling at night time. None of it has labored. The porcupines are relentless.
“We’d like actual motion, not simply phrases,” says Rashid, whose land borders Ahmad’s. “If this continues, Kashmiri saffron will disappear.”
The porcupine invasion isn’t just a neighborhood drawback. Kashmir’s saffron is a worldwide commodity, and any disruption in provide can ship ripples by the worldwide market, say trade insiders.
Iran’s saffron – which constitutes about 85 p.c of the spice produced globally – has a decrease crocin content material (6.82 p.c) than its Kashmiri cousin.
As Kashmir’s yields decline, merchants worry Iranian dominance over the market will lengthen even additional than it already does.
“If even 5 p.c of the crop is misplaced to porcupines, that’s a 29-million-rupee ($350,000) loss yearly,” says Bilal Ahmed, a saffron dealer in Srinagar. “Costs will rise and Kashmiri saffron might turn out to be a luxurious few can afford.”
The destiny of Kashmir’s ‘crimson gold’
As daybreak breaks over Pampore, Bashir Ahmad collects the scattered quills left behind by the porcupines. He sighs, understanding that tonight, the cycle will repeat.
For now, the battle continues. However farmers like Ahmad worry they’re shedding and that the world could quickly must face a future with out Kashmir’s prized “crimson gold”: An oz of saffron within the world market prices greater than an oz. of gold.
“In the event that they preserve coming, we could have nothing left,” he says, shaking his head. “This land has given us saffron for hundreds of years. If we lose it, we lose part of Kashmir itself.”
The porcupine invasion in Pampore’s saffron fields isn’t any accident. Mir Muskan Un Nisa, a analysis scholar on the Sher-e-Kashmir College of Agricultural Sciences and Know-how, says that habitat destruction and shrinking forest cowl are making fewer meals sources obtainable within the nocturnal rodents’ native ecosystems. So, saffron corms present an simply accessible and nutritious different.
“Their burrowing and feeding habits not solely cut back saffron yields but additionally harm soil well being, affecting future cultivation,” she says.
She explains that farmers should undertake protecting measures like deep-set wire fencing, which extends 1.5 metres (5 toes) underground to make it more durable for porcupines and different rodents to dig their approach underneath them. Pure repellents, and motion-activated sensors that flash a light-weight or make a sound when animals method, thus scaring them, are different choices, she says.
Devising methods to soundly entice the porcupines and relocate them “is essential to safeguarding each the crops and the porcupine inhabitants”, she provides.
Local weather change has performed a big position in Kashmir’s porcupine problem, consultants say. Erratic climate patterns have altered vegetation cycles, affecting the provision of porcupines’ conventional meals sources. Warmer winters, which had been as soon as uncommon in Kashmir, now enable porcupines to stay energetic for longer durations, damaging saffron farms greater than earlier than.
Furthermore, wild predators corresponding to leopards and wild canine helped preserve ecological stability by maintaining porcupine numbers underneath management. Nevertheless, with predator populations dwindling on account of habitat destruction and human exercise, porcupine numbers seem to have surged, say wildlife consultants. They cite a pointy rise in sightings and crop harm, although there isn’t a official census of porcupines.
What may be performed?
Wildlife and agricultural consultants at the moment are exploring attainable options to curb the porcupine menace.
“One suggestion is the managed reintroduction of pure predators, corresponding to wild canine, to revive ecological stability. Nevertheless, this stays controversial, because it might pose dangers to livestock and human settlements,” says Zaheer Ahmad, a wildlife knowledgeable.
A extra fast answer that some farmers have tried is fencing and trapping. Whereas electrical fencing has confirmed considerably efficient in deterring porcupines, it’s prohibitively costly for a lot of small-scale farmers. Trapping and relocation of porcupines, if performed systematically, might supply a viable different.
Scientists are additionally growing biodegradable repellents that mimic predator scents to scare away porcupines. Not like the natural repellent spray examined final 12 months, which yielded blended outcomes, these new formulations purpose to supply a extra lasting deterrent with out harming the setting.
Safeguarding saffron crops is especially difficult, says Intesar Suhail, the regional head of wildlife conservation and forest safety for North Kashmir.
“For fruit bushes, like almond and apple, portray the trunks white or masking them with gunny luggage can supply safety,” he tells Al Jazeera. White paint displays daylight, fending off pests, whereas gunny luggage act as bodily limitations.
However these ways don’t work for saffron, grown from bulbs in open fields, he says.
Planting particular species like wormwood or wild yam “round area perimeters could function a deterrent”, he says. These vegetation emit scents that porcupines keep away from.
“Additionally, spraying pepper options across the bulbs might assist, offered it doesn’t hurt the crop.”
Nevertheless, saffron farmers say they want the federal government’s assist to introduce these modifications.
Compensation for crop losses, subsidies for fencing and long-term wildlife administration insurance policies might assist mitigate the disaster, they are saying.
And time is working out.
“We used to fret in regards to the climate or the market, however now, we’re shedding our crop earlier than it even reaches harvest,” says Ghulam Nabi, a 39-year-old whose farm is subsequent to Ahmad’s. “If this continues, our livelihood will likely be completed.”
