Walnut harvesting is one of Kashmir’s oldest agricultural traditions and an important source of livelihood for thousands of families. Yet behind the economic value of this crop lies a largely ignored occupational hazard. Every year, workers climb tall and often slippery walnut trees using crude traditional methods. Many lose their balance and fall from considerable heights, suffering fatal head injuries, spinal damage, fractures, permanent disabilities as well as death.
This is not an isolated or unknown problem. A medical study conducted in Kashmir found that 94 per cent of tree-fall cases occur between August and October, with walnut trees being a significant source of such injuries. The study documented serious orthopaedic and other traumatic injuries among victims and identified walnut-tree falls as an important occupational hazard.
The tragedy, therefore, is not unpredictable. It is seasonal, recurring and, in many cases, preventable.
A Preventable Danger
Walnut trees can be extremely tall, while their branches and bark can become slippery. Workers often climb them without adequate protective equipment and balance themselves on branches while using long sticks to knock down walnuts. One slip can turn a day’s work into a family’s lifelong tragedy.
Yet relatively simple safety measures can substantially reduce the risk—safety harnesses, properly secured ropes, helmets, non-slip footwear, protective gear and, most importantly, safety nets beneath the trees.
Scientific and safer harvesting methods should gradually replace dangerous traditional practices.
The question is: why has this not happened on a large scale?
Poverty is an important part of the answer. Many walnut harvesters are economically vulnerable workers who depend on seasonal employment. A labourer who needs the income to feed his family may accept dangerous working conditions because refusing the job may mean losing his livelihood.
That is precisely why the entire responsibility for safety cannot be placed upon the worker.
What About Those Who Hire Them?
Many walnut thrashers are engaged by farmers, traders or contractors for harvesting. When a person is hired to perform work involving an obvious risk of falling from a tall tree, the person engaging or supervising that work cannot reasonably ignore safety.
India’s Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 came into force on 21 November 2025 and consolidates the legal framework relating to occupational safety, health and working conditions. It contains provisions concerning employers and contract labour.
Its precise application to every individual farmer or walnut trader would depend on the nature of the establishment and the manner in which workers are engaged. Therefore, it would be legally inaccurate to declare that every person hiring a walnut thrasher is automatically liable under the Code.
But that does not mean that those who engage workers have no responsibility.
Depending upon the circumstances, questions of duty of care, negligence, employment liability, statutory compensation and social-security benefits may arise. Where a contractor or trader controls the work, directs the harvesting process or employs workers for commercial purposes, the circumstances of any serious accident deserve proper investigation.
A simple principle should guide the industry:
Those who profit from dangerous labour must take reasonable steps to make that labour safer.
Providing helmets, harnesses, non-slip footwear and safety nets should not be viewed as charity. It is an investment in human life.
Where Is the Government?
The government cannot automatically be held legally responsible for every accident occurring on private agricultural land. Nor does every walnut-tree death, by itself, establish a violation of Article 21.
But the State cannot remain indifferent to a known, recurring and preventable occupational hazard.
Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees the right to life and personal liberty. The Supreme Court has repeatedly given the right to life a broad meaning that extends beyond mere physical existence and encompasses living with dignity.
The government’s responsibility should therefore include prevention, regulation, awareness, emergency response, rehabilitation and enforcement of applicable laws.
The authorities should maintain district-wise data on walnut-harvesting accidents and deaths, conduct safety-awareness programmes before every harvesting season and promote scientific harvesting methods.
Safety equipment should be made available at subsidised rates through appropriate government departments. Training programmes should be organised in major walnut-producing areas before the harvesting season begins.
There should also be a clear mechanism for emergency medical assistance and rehabilitation. Where a worker dies or suffers permanent disability in circumstances covered by applicable compensation or social-security laws, his family should not be left to navigate the system alone.
An Economy Built on Vulnerable Labour
Walnuts remain an important part of Jammu and Kashmir’s horticultural economy. The J&K Government’s Regional Digest of Statistics 2024–25 records walnut production at approximately 93.01 thousand metric tonnes during 2024–25.
But behind every statistic are people.
The workers climbing these trees are often young men from economically weaker families. For many, seasonal walnut harvesting is an essential source of income. When such a worker dies, his family does not merely lose a labourer—it may lose its only breadwinner.
A widow may be left without income. Children may struggle to continue their education. Elderly parents may lose their only source of support.
Yet these deaths rarely generate sustained public debate.
Why Are We Silent?
Perhaps the most uncomfortable question is this:
Why does the life of a poor walnut thrasher appear to receive less attention than the walnut he is harvesting?
We readily discuss walnut production, markets, exports and economic growth. We celebrate Kashmir’s horticultural potential. But when a poor worker falls from a tree, the tragedy often disappears from public memory within days.
This cannot continue.
We cannot call every death an unavoidable accident when the risk is known, preventive measures are available and safer technology can be introduced.
The solution is neither complicated nor impossible: Train the workers, equip them with safety gear and use safety nets. Introduce harnesses and safer harvesting systems. Ensure proper emergency response. Hold those responsible for unsafe working conditions accountable. Provide compensation and rehabilitation where the law requires it.
Kashmir’s walnut industry should not be built at the cost of human lives. The workers who climb these trees are contributing to the region’s rural economy. They deserve not only wages, but dignity, protection and safety. A walnut may have economic value but no walnut is more valuable than the life of the person who climbs the tree to harvest it.
The writer is an Advocate in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court Srinagar. Suhailadv13@ gmail. Com
