The crowd thundered as UAE cricketer Junaid Siddique launched a towering 109-metre six during the 2022 T20 World Cup. Thousands of kilometres away, in South Kashmir’s Sangam, bat maker Mehraj Deen watched with pride. The bat in Siddique’s hands had been made in Kashmir, from the same willow that Deen has spent 35 years shaping.
But for Deen and hundreds of other bat makers in the region, such moments are becoming harder to celebrate. The industry has orders from national and international markets, but an increasingly uncertain supply of willow is threatening its future. “We have been earning well, but over the last few years, we are under stress. We get bulk orders from national and international markets, but we are running out of wood,” says Deen.
Sangam is home to more than 150 bat manufacturing units and has long been synonymous with famed willow bats. The industry produces around three million bats a year and supports nearly 1.5 lakh people. Yet manufacturers say securing the wood needed to keep their workshops running has become their biggest challenge.
Years of declining willow plantations, changing weather and widespread tree felling have steadily reduced the availability of Kashmir willow. “In the name of developmental projects, Kashmir willow has rapidly vanished over the years,” says Fawzul Kabeer, spokesperson for the Bat Manufacturing Association of Kashmir and co-founder of GR8 Sports.
Manufacturers are now increasingly sourcing willow from the northern districts of Bandipora, Baramulla and Kupwara. “We now get willow wood only in North Kashmir,” Kabeer says, attributing the decline in local plantations to the drying up of water bodies.
For Kabeer, the shortage has also become a reason to rethink how the industry sources its raw material. His company, GR8 Sports, produces around 3,000 bats a month and has sought to put Kashmir willow on the international cricket map. “We were the first to showcase Kashmir willow to international players,” he says. To counter the depletion of trees, the company plants 10 trees for every tree used to make its bats.
The urgency is underscored by the industry’s growing export numbers, which rose from 35,000 bats in 2021 to 195,000 in 2023. Demand, in other words, is not the problem. The question is whether there will be enough willow to meet it. “In the coming three years, it looks like the industry will be shut once and for all,” Kabeer laments.