Himachal Apple Growers Get Supreme Court Relief: What Future Holds?

Apple growers in Jubbal-Kotkhai, Rohru, Chopal, and Theog—Himachal Pradesh’s prosperous apple belt—have received temporary relief from the removal of fully fruit-laden orchards raised on the encroached forest land.

For now, the axe on these plants has been stayed, offering the growers a much-needed breather amid the ongoing drive to clear forest encroachments.

The Supreme Court, on Monday, stayed the order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court directing a time-bound felling of apple trees grown on the forest lands.

Intervening in a petition filed by Tikender Singh Panwar, former deputy mayor of Shimla, through advocate Rajiv Rai, the Supreme Court allowed the state government to auction the apples, which are ready for harvesting by the owners, who had raised these plants.

The bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria took note of the petitioner’s contentions that the High Court order not only ignores the environmental aspects linked to the cutting down of fully grown plants but also causes a threat to the livelihoods of the farmers—many dependent on the orchards.

Reports suggest more than 4,000 apple trees had already been felled during the drive till July 28, 2025, to implement the High Court orders.

There has been discontent growing in the apple belt over the axing of the fruit-bearing plants, with many suggesting that the timing of the felling drive was alarming.

“It's no longer a secret in this area that certain fringes of the apple orchards extended onto forest land, or people had felled forest and planted orchards. However, the High Court could have exercised its discretion, considering the crop was ready for harvest, and could have allowed the produce to be spared,” said Nitish Chauhan, a young apple grower from Narkanda.

On Tuesday, the apple growers, affiliated with Seb Utpadak Sangh—a farmer body led by Rakesh Singha, former MLA (Theog), demonstrated outside the state secretariat to draw Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu’s attention towards growing unrest over the High Court order.

Singha later led a delegation to the Chief Minister, seeking an immediate halt to the felling of the plants. He warned that, if not for the Supreme Court’s stay, the affected families, particularly women, might have directly confronted the felling teams.

“We have shown considerable patience so far, but that ends here. It is do or die now,” Singha warned.

Even as the issue of forest land encroachments to grow apples remains highly contentious and debatable—how and why the state government let the forests be illegally felled to make place for the apples, bringing wealth to several highly influential families, Panwar speaks of some logic too. 

“The mass cutting of the apple trees during the monsoon season is bound to escalate the chances of landslides and ecological deterioration the state already faces due to climate change in the Himalayas. These farmers have not built malls, multi-story markets, or urban spaces—they are farmers dependent on their orchards,” he said.

In the petition, the former deputy mayor raised concerns about the chances of soil erosion if the orchards are subjected to mass felling in a region characterised by high seismic activity and ecological sensitivity. “Rather than destroying the crop, auctioning the fruit and ensuring its effective harvesting appears to be a more practical solution,” Panwar suggested, and the Supreme Court accepted the argument.

Forest encroachments to grow apples remains a complex, legally contentious and open to debate issue. Farmers whose orchards have been flattened over July are asking that the drive be taken to its logical conclusion, to vacate the forest land: the influential are always ‘lucky’ to escape the axe.

“The big growers are untouched, while small orchardists are being targeted—just as it happened in 2017-18,” says Gulab Nahata, a small farmer.

At the heart of this problem is a contentious history of land rights, laws that demarcate protected forests and the growing demands of agriculture and horticulture. 

On February 25, 1952, the Himachal Pradesh government notified that all forest land and wasteland were protected under section 29 of the Indian Forests Act, 1927. This initial statement wasn’t based on accurate land boundaries, leading to decades of legal and administrative chaos as people planted apples on land that was supposedly “protected” forest land.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court took up the issue of forest encroachments through a writ petition filed in 2004, setting a prolonged legal battle in motion. Official communications in 2014 and 2015, highlighting large-scale deforestation, prompted the court to examine the matter in greater depth, eventually leading to a landmark ruling on April 6, 2015.

“The High Court mandated the state to demolish any illegal structures, terminate essential supplies like water and electricity, and eradicate any crops or vegetation cultivated on encroached territory,” he recalled.

What happens next will depend on how the state government responds to the Supreme Court’s notice and proceeds on the case in court.