Kashmir getting denuded of autumnal grandeur

Srinagar: As ripening paddy fields impart a magical golden-brown magnificence to the countryside, the soothing autumnal sun shines to confirm that the season of plenty has arrived in Kashmir – as an environmental disaster looms. From paddy, maize, apples, grapes and pears - all the yearly labour of local farmers and orchardists is readying to be harvested.

"Almost all the marriage ceremonies in the past would be held after the harvesting period in the Valley," Nisar Hussain, 64, a retired chief engineer, told IANS. "The poor farmer would get his return of the year's labour and there would be enough food to serve the guests and relatives. As locals started businesses and other activities, the dependence on agriculture came down because of vanishing agriculture lands.

Marriage functions are now held in any month of the year," Hussain added. Sadly, in all this, Kashmir's biggest and unnoticed tragedy has been the unlawful conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. Under the existing laws, nobody can convert agriculture land for construction purposes like building houses, shopping malls or industries.

A cursory look at the north, south and central Kashmir areas of Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam, Badgam, Srinagar, Baramulla, Kupwara, Ganderbal and Bandipora districts shows how callous has been the nexus between the land mafia and the authorities. "Land protected under the state laws exclusively for agricultural purposes is sold and gets converted into shopping complexes, residential houses and industrial workshops," Abdul Salam, 59, a farmer in Anantnag district, lamented.

Urbanization may have its advantages, but the price paid in terms of ecological devastation, environmental degradation and mindless expansion of towns and cities is something that can cost Kashmir its place of pride on the World map. "There are hundreds of urbanized, industrialized and commercialized places in the world, but Kashmir owes its uniqueness and grandeur to its lakes, mountains, countryside, glaciers and meadows.

“All this is fast vanishing and so are the memories of the great bounties nature had bestowed the place with", said Abdul Gani Mir, 56, who lives on the outskirts of Srinagar city that had vast and fabulously beautiful orchards, paddy fields and open land till some years back. The paradox of Kashmir became understandable when Mir's neighbour said he had recently sold five areas of paddy land for over Rs10 crore ($1.5 million).

The greed for modern day luxuries, including SUVs, centrally heated homes, modular kitchens, high-speed motor cycles for youngsters and electronic gadgets are proving to be too much to resist for the once-hardworking farmers of Kashmir. "The skyrocketing land prices are likely to convert the entire Kashmir countryside into a monster of concrete," rued Muhammad Shafi, 52, an orchardist in Baramulla district's Sopore area.

By Sheikh Qayoom