Anantnag’s Owais Khan Turns Scrap Into Apple Gondola, Easing Orchard Work
In the quiet village of Kehribal in south Kashmir’s Anantnag, 25-year-old Owais Khan has turned what many saw as waste into a lifeline for apple growers. With no formal education beyond the sixth grade, Owais has shown that determination and creativity can outshine limitations.
Forced to drop out of school at an early age due to financial difficulties, Owais never stopped learning. Instead of textbooks, he turned to the internet, where online tutorials sparked his imagination. “Some years ago, the idea struck me I wanted to create something that would help my family and neighbours carry apple boxes from steep orchards to lower ground,” he recalls.
That idea soon became an obsession. Collecting discarded vehicle parts and scraps, Owais spent months experimenting in a small workshop near his home. Piece by piece, he built what he calls an apple gondola a machine that can transport apple boxes safely and quickly from high-altitude orchards down to collection points.
The invention has already begun changing lives. Traditionally, workers carried heavy boxes on their backs through narrow, uneven orchard paths. It was slow, exhausting, and often dangerous. Now, with Owais’s gondola, the work is faster, safer, and less labor-intensive.
The innovation has also proven economical. “Earlier, we spent nearly ₹15,000 a day on labour. The gondola now does the work with only about ₹500 worth of fuel daily,” Owais explains. His family has invested nearly ₹1 crore in their orchard, and the gondola ensures those investments are not wasted during harvest.
Apple gondola made of scrap engine.
Local farmers call the invention a “game-changer.” For them, it’s more than a machine it’s hope. “We often struggle to find labourers willing to climb tall trees and carry heavy boxes. This gondola has made the work easier,” one grower says.
Owais now employs five people and dreams of scaling up his project. “I may not have a degree, but I had a dream. I wasn’t ready to give up on it. If I get support from the government or private organisations, I can build more gondolas to benefit farmers across Kashmir,” he says with a quiet smile.
From a school dropout to an innovator, Owais Khan’s journey is a story of resilience, ingenuity, and the will to turn challenges into opportunities one apple box at a time.
