Nature

Nature

Apple Time at Thanedar
In the bowl of Himachal, a new spell of sunshine after the snow and the frozen mountain streams start to go drip-drop into pads of moss, crocuses on the bare hillsides and buds on every leafless bush and tree sprout almost overnight. Swift on the heels of this change bloom all the apple trees in the little hamlet of Thanedar.

The metalled road to Thanedar fights a yearly battle against snow, torrential rains and trucks. You drive into Thanedar through a sea of apple trees, all lacy white against a backdrop of blue hills while here and there a mustard field flaunts its dazzlin g yellow. The area is incredibly peaceful. From dawn to dusk and dawn again, it's the birds that make the most noise. Don't be taken in by appearances, though. Thanedar is a very important place for this is where the apple story was born.
But first things first. Before you begin to look around, you would do well to deposit your stuff at the Farmer's Community Centre where, for a moderate charge, you can get good clean board and lodging. Rooms are available the year round, except during t he harvest season, say July to September.
Thanedar has a quaint little bazaar with tumbledown tea shops where the kettle is only marginally more sooty then the walls. But tea is a great thing for getting people to talk. So you order a glass and ask the shop owner what there is to see around the place. "Orchards, "he will tell you. "Mountains, the farthest of them perpetually covered with snow. The beauty of nature." You nod in agreement. "And what is the best place to see it from?" As likely as not his answer will be, "Harmony Hall, at the top of Barobag Hill. But you can't just walk in there. It is the Stoke's family home, so you must first obtain permission."
Armed with the permission, you climb to the top of Barobag and find that the tea shop owner was on the dot. From the crest of the hill, at 8,000 feet, Thanedar unfolds as a magnificent panorama of mountains. The farthest of them are cloaked in snow, oth ers are deodar clad or draped in a soft blue haze. In a gorge, some 6,000 feet below and clearly visible to the naked eye, flows the river Sutlej. The slopes of Thanedar (part of Shimia hills) are studded with apple orchards. Apple trees are absolutely everywhere and prosperity via the apple is legendary. The man who stalled it all was an American, Samuel Evans Stokes.
It was in 1904, at the age of 22, that Stokes landed in India. He was a freelance missionary from a well to do family of Quakers. Moved by reports of the work done by one Dr. Cariton at the Leprosy Home at Sabathu (near Solan), Stokes came to India to h elp the less fortunate. However, on seeing lndia's rich tradition of culture and philosophy, he began to have doubts about his own objectives. From trying to convert Indians to Christianity, he began to study Hindu scriptures. On the way to Kotgarh vil lage, Stokes lived as a sadhu, his home being a cave. He lived alone and spent all his time in study and meditation.
Stokes emerged from his self imposed exile to identify himself more and more with india and things Indian. He married a Rajput Christian girl named Agnes Benjamin. He also bought about 200 acres of land which formed the Barobag Tea Estate and on which H armony Hall now stands. Later Stokes embraced Hinduism changing his name to Satyanand Stokes and that of his wife to Priya Devi. His children bore Hindu names too. The stage was now setfor Stokes to plunge headlong into the life of his adoptive country .
Stokes was deeply disturbed by the condition of the people around him. Thanedar and the entire Kotgarh area were in the grip of a harsh subsistence economy. On their small, rock, rainfed holdings, the local farmers managed to raise but meagre crops of m aize and buckwheat. An average labourer earned 6 paise per day, just about enough for his namak-tamaku (salt and tobacco) as the saying went. The cattle were a small breed, yielding only a limited quantity of milk. There was a crying need to increase t he resources of both the land and the people. There followed years of systematic study before stokes had a brainwave. He realized that the answer to the problems of Thanedar-Kotgarh was fruit cultivation. And since the area had a climate and soil very similar to those of the apple growing areas of the U.S., the choice naturally fell on apple.
Not that the apple was unknown to Shimia hills. But the fruit was mostly wild and too tart to be of much use. What Stokes did was to obtain seedlings of improved varieties, among them Delicious, both Golden and Red. He planted these in his own land. St okes was by then a highly respected man. Even so, he found it difficult to convince the people of Thanedar and Kotgarh to take to apple cultivation as an alternative with a future.
However, Stoke's own orchard, planted in 1919, started to bear fruit in 1925 and the market immediately went crazy over them. Almost overnight farmer stook to apple cultivation. From Thanedar and Kotgarh apple culture spread all over Shimla hilis and be yond. Slowly the people were raised from the level of poor, marginal farmers to prosperous owners of orchards that yielded bumper harvests.
On a trip to Thanedar we were invited to lunch at one of these orchards. True to type, the farm house was double storeyed affair. The ground floor was one large stall meant for the livestock and for reserves of fodder. The rest of the house, comprising six large rooms and a deep verandah, stood complete with carpets, elegant furniture and fittings, a TV and VCR! But again, true to type, the house did not boast a single toilet. Rain or snow, people had to use a wooded hillside.
On another occasion we spent a night at the house of a friend who owns an orchard. Our bedroom lay right above the store where apples were stacked prior to grading and packing. And all night long the fresh incredibly sweet smell wafted up to us through the gaps between the wooden floorboards. In these parts apples are not only eaten fresh, off trees and cases, but slices of apple are also dried on rooftops to be munched as a sw eet in winter. Every year several lakh cases of apple leave Thanedar Kotgarh for different parts of the country and abroad. Which accounts for the unbroken line of trucks that ply these roads during harvest time, from July through September.
An apple tree needs at least two or three feet of snow every year. Snow is like manure. lt provides slow, controlled irrigation during the dormant winter months. But an apple tree also needs the presence of bees. Sometimes bees from the wild won't come on their own and the crop suffers. The answer is resident bee colonies. And that is why most orchards have bee boxes strategically placed. There is a ceaseless murmur among the tress on April afternoons as these busy little workers fly from blossom to blossom making frequent inbetween trips to the box all day long. There are mustard fields to explore too. When both apple blossom and mustard are done, bees turn to wild flowers for nectar. The local bush chichiri (also known as sainj) with its small wh ite flowers is an excellent source of nectar, yieldingpaperwhite honey.
Come November and the cold rings down the curtain on the activities of bees. They can't survive the winter so the boxes have to be removed to lower altitudes. This is a tricky operation requiring the use of carry cages and trained manpower. For these m any valid reasons, people take bees on loan from government agencies.
But if you think winter rings down the curtain on the activities of an orchard owner too, you have some startling facts coming your way. Aman with an orchard to is name must work round the calendar with the possible exception of February which provides a welcome respite. In December and January, the slopes of Thanedar and Kotgarh area dotted with men armed with clippers and light ladders, busy pruning the apple trees. The rest of the year is taken up by exacting operations like spraying, applying ferti lizer, guarding against damage by birds and monkeys (who incidentally have the right of way in the separts), harvesting, packing and marketing. The idyllic surroundings of Thanedar and Kotgarh are but a cover for a tough, relentless way of life. Don't l et us take our apples for granted!

GETTING THERE
Thanedar is about 82 kms from Shimia via Narkanda. There is a regular bus service between Shimia and Thanedar. For more information contact Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) office, The Mall Shimla 171 001. Telephone 3311, 3956.