Kotgarh - An Apple Orchard

Distance : 82km from Shimla via Narkanda

As you drive into Kotgarh through a sea of apple trees you’ll be struck by its sheer beauty. This is the spawning ground of the apple revolution in Himachal.
Every year several lakh cases of apple leave Kotgarh for different parts of the country. This accounts for the unbroken line of trucks that ply these roads during harvest time.

The man who started it all was an American called Samuel Evans Stokes. He made his home atop Barobag Hill and called it Harmony Hall. Some 1,800m below flows the Sutlej.


¤ An Interesting Tale -- The Apple that Started it All

and it has nothing to do with Adam and Eve! Try Samuel Evans Stokes instead. Stokes landed in India in 1904 at the age of 22. He came with the intention of helping the poor people of the hill regions. In trying to convert people to Christianity he himself became a Hindu! He studied Hindu scriptures religiously and then decided to live as a sadhu (hermit) in a cave near the village of Kotgarh.

Stokes emerged from his self-imposed exile to marry a Rajput Christian named Agnes Benjamin. (Later they became Satyanand Stokes and Priya Devi, of course.) Seeing the poor state of the economy in Kotgarh, Stokes decided to grow apple trees commercially.

of course nobody believed that he could make a go of it, so in 1919 he planted trees on his 200 acres. They began bearing fruit in 1925 and the market immediately went crazy over them. Almost overnight farmers took to apple cultivation and soon the apple culture spread all over Shimla hills and beyond. and so, many poor farmers came to be prosperous orchard owners and lived happily ever after.


¤ Transport

There is a regular bus service between Shimla and Thanedar. For more information contact the HPTDC office in Shimla.