Mumbai: When 40-year-old mango and cashew farmer Avinash Mahajan boarded a train to Panipat to visit Indian Oil Corp.’s Panipat refinery, he was protesting against a proposed refinery near his farm in Ratnagiri that is believed will hurt farming prospects in the region.
He had every reason to be resentful. Mango farming had suffered in the region due to changing environmental conditions. Produce of Alphonso mangoes, cashew from Mahajan’s 30-acre farm in Ratnagiri, where he also grows bamboo, has been impacted as the fruit-bearing season for mangoes in Ratnagiri has changed from February to May, when the season for mangoes is at its peak.
