Superstar actor Ramcharan from South India made news today by attending the G-20 summit in Srinagar, Kashmir. The actor gave a special performance to commemorate the occasion, dancing on stage to the hit song “Naatu Naatu” from his film “RRR.” A video showing Ram Charan teaching the Korean ambassador, Chang Jae-bok, the song’s hook-step has gone viral on social media, sparking interest among fans and movie buffs all over the world.
Ramcharan’s Arrival and Performance
Ram Charan came on Monday in Srinagar to take part in a G20 Summit activity. The actor participated in a side event where he displayed his dancing abilities as a part of the third G20 Tourism Working Group Meeting in the Kashmir valley. He captivated the crowd with his dynamic performance of the song “Naatu Naatu” and used the occasion to instruct the foreign representatives there in the dancing moves as well. Ram Charan performed while wearing a traditional white attire, and his work received high applause.
‘Naatu Naatu’ and Global Recognition
The song “Naatu Naatu” from the film “RRR,” which won the Oscar for best original song this year, became well-known all over the world. The movie, which also stars Jr. NTR, Ajay Devgan, and Alia Bhatt, received more praise when it won the coveted Golden Globe. Ram Charan’s dance performance during the G-20 summit demonstrated the song’s appeal and popularity, captivating the crowd.
Ministry of Tourism tweeted : The Naatu Naatu star @AlwaysRamCharan along with @ChangJaebok1 , Korean Amabassador to India did an impromptu performance to the #NaatuNaatu beats – the Oscar winning song at the #Filmtourism side event at the 3rd G20 #TWG meeting at Srinagar.
Ram Charan highlighted his strong devotion to Kashmir during his remarks at the occasion. He recalled how his father had done a lot of filming in Sonamarg and Gulmarg starting in 1986. The actor recalled his own experience of filming in the same theatre in 2016 for the film “Dhruva.” He characterised Kashmir as a location with a mysterious air that attracts everyone’s interest. Ram Charan emphasised the odd sense of being in the region and stated his appreciation for its beauty despite the preconceived assumptions and news about Kashmir.
Boosting Tourism in Jammu and Kashmir
The Union Territory’s tourist industry will receive a major boost as a result of the G-20 tourist Working Group conference in Srinagar. G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism G Kishan Reddy, and Union Minister Jitendra Singh were among the notable dignitaries and more than 60 international delegations that attended the event.
Amitabh Kant emphasised Kashmir’s potential as a location for filming, and he pledged support and aid in helping to market it as a desirable location for filming.
G Kishan Reddy emphasised the development of film tourism as a potent tool for promoting the tourist sector, with the government in Jammu and Kashmir coming up with a detailed plan for its expansion.
International Meeting in Post-Article 370 Kashmir
This G-20 summit is notable since it is the first international gathering to take place in Kashmir after Article 370 was repealed and the former state was divided into Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh in August 2019. The confidence in the security of the area and the government’s initiatives to encourage tourism and development is reflected in the attendance of world leaders and delegations.
Security Measures and India’s G20 Presidency
Security has been tightened due to the meeting’s location in Srinagar to ensure everyone’s safety. India has hosted 118 G20 meetings while holding the presidency, demonstrating its dedication to international cooperation.
Remains of the ill-fated army truck that went up in flames after suspected militants attacked it in Bhata Dhurian area in Mendhar (Poonch) on April 20, 2023. Six soldiers were killed and one survived injured.
Jammu and Kashmir Police have detained six persons after questioning nearly 200 people in Poonch following April 22, attack on an army vehicle in which five soldiers were killed. The operation involving various security agencies in the Bhata Durian belt is still in progress. The agencies investigating the attack have narrowed their focus on two militant handlers based in Pakistan, Rafiq Nai and Habibullah Malik, who are believed to have played a key role in the attack. Both men were designated as militants by the Indian government last year, and their involvement in the recent attack underscores the ongoing threat posed by militants operating from across the border in Pakistan.
Asserting that the attack was carried out with active local support, Dilbagh Singh, the Police Chief said a native, Nasir Ahmad has provided shelter and logistics to attackers. The massive crackdown has triggered outrage after Mukhtar Hussain Shah, a resident of Nar (Mendhar) consumed poison and died by suicide over alleged harassment and torture. Before committing suicide, he had recorded a video.
Singh said the attackers were supplied arms through drones. Three persons formally arrested include Gursi residents- Nissar Ahmad, Farid Ahmad, and Mushtaq. The Poonch Rajouri region is emerging as a challenge. Only six army men were killed in militancy violence in Kashmir since October 2021 as against 21 in Poonch and Rajouri districts during the same period.
School Education Department has directed private schools operating from Government land to admit 25 per cent of their students from weaker sections of society.
KUPWARA
A Kashmiri Imam, who led taraveh prayers during Ramzan 2023, was gifted an Umarh package by the village in north Kashmir.
For Muslims within and outside Kashmir, Ramzan, the Muslim month of fasting, is the era for protracted prayers, charity, and self-introspection. Most of the mosques ensure they have a Hafiz-e-Quran who will lead them in Taraweh prayers and once the month concludes these Imam’s are honoured. Residents of Mareed Mohalla in Kupwara thought out-of-box. Instead of paying him in cash or gifting him worldly valuables, they recognised Maulana Bilal Ahmad Nadvi’s contribution by sending him on Umrah. This was a surprise to the Imam, too. This first-of-its-kind gesture has the potential of becoming the new fashion statement of the faithful, naysayers say.
The government is providing land free of charge in favour of BSNL for saturation of 4G mobile services in all the 303 uncovered villages across Jammu and Kashmir.
HANDWARA
Police arrested a couple in Handwara on April 25, 2023, for running a prostitution racket. Photo:JKP
In yet another shocking event, the Jammu and Kashmir Police uncovered a prostitution ring in the Reshipora, Kupwara. Police said they conducted a raid on a house leading to the arrest of Shabir Ahmad War, his wife and three more people. This is the fourth such scandal in the last few weeks that has come to light in Jammu and Kashmir, with similar operations having been uncovered in Srinagar outskirts including Bagh-e-Mehtab and Nowgam area, and another in Jammu Jewel Chowk. It is immediately not known what pushes individuals to prostitution.
11 Gujaratis were arrested for taking Gandola for a ride with a fake ticket. Earlier a Mumbai tourist group went to jail for the same offence.
MUMBAI
Bollywood flick, Pathaan poster showing the lead actors including Shahrukh Khan, John Ibrahim and Deepika Padukone
Bollywood’s heartthrob Shahrukh Khan has set Kashmir abuzz with excitement as he returned after 11 years to shoot for his upcoming film Dunki. Directed by Raj Kumar Hirani and co-starring Tapsee Pannu, the movie scenes were filmed in the stunning locales of Sonamarg and Pulwama. He also did some shopping in Srinagar but at the S airport, he was mobbed by fans.
Khan’s arrival for a few days has boosted the morale of the administration that recorded 300 film shootings in 2022. LT Governor Manoj Sinha said the region is experiencing a resurgence of the Bollywood era of the 1980s when many films were shot in the area due to its breathtaking beauty. For Shahrukh Khan, his return to Kashmir is a nostalgic one, having shot Jab Tak Hai Jaan in the region back in 2012. Bollywood has always been in love with Kashmir. The only difference from the 1980s is that the government was not incentivising the Bollywood shooting as it is being done big time in 2020.
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha laid the foundation stone of Kashmir Medical College and Super-Speciality Hospital being developed by Milli Trust, Delhi, a 100-bed Rs 525-crore project that will have 150 MBBS seats and provide jobs for 2,000 people.
SAMBA
A government employee was arrested for allegedly raping a woman under the guise of being a tantrik. The accused lured the woman to his house on the pretext of healing her skin disease through “magical powers” and then raped her. The police have identified the accused as Subash Chander of Rarian Ramgarh village and a case has been registered against him. The accused is currently behind bars.
Rekha Sharma, chairperson, National Commission for Women (NCW), has revealed that in 2022, women trafficking in Jammu and Kashmir have increased by about 15.26 per cent but it is “just the tip of an iceberg”
BHADERWAH
A group photograph showing the scholars, farmers and representatives of industry in CSIR-IIIM interaction in Pulwama. The photograph was taken in the lavender farm on June 13, 2022
The Chenab Valley’s mini-Kashmir is purple these days as farmers have switched from traditional crops to lucrative lavender cultivation. Over the past decade, lavender cultivation has expanded from 10 kanals of land to about 4000 kanals, with around 2500 farmers now engaged in it. A single lavender plant bears flowers for 15 years and needs little maintenance, and its oil is used in a variety of products, including soaps, cosmetics, perfumes, and medicines.
Bharat Bhushan, one of the first farmers to switch to lavender farming in the region, found that he earned four times more profit from lavender than from traditional maize farming, and he gradually converted his entire 10 kanals of farmland to a lavender farm. After Bhushan’s video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016, the Aroma Mission was launched in Jammu and Kashmir, providing free lavender plants to farmers. The program has been a great success, with 500-600 farmers switching to lavender farming and 1000 kanals of land being brought under its cultivation. Modi acknowledged the region’s effort in his Mann Ki Baat.
KPDCL has 700 positions vacant
DUBAI
Safina Nabi
Kashmir journalist Safina Nabi has won the second prize in the Outstanding Contribution to Peace category of the Fetisov Journalism Award for her article titled “How Kashmir’s half-widows are denied their basic property rights.” The article sheds light on the plight of countless women in Kashmir who have been cut out of inheritances and left to fend for themselves after their husbands disappeared and could never be traced. Women whose husbands have disappeared but not yet been declared dead are referred to as “half-widows” by in Kashmir.
Last week, more than 1200 flats were inaugurated for migrant Kashmiri Pandit migrants under the Prime Minister’s package.
KOKERNAG
A government-run school in Kokernag has performed abysmally as only one of its 25 students in the eighth class passed the examination. The Middle School Khokarpora Adhal Vailoo is now the focus of an investigation. It caters to the requirements of the weaker sections but failed in imparting education.
Of 9700 water bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, more than 76 per are ‘in use’. Almost 48.6 per cent of water bodies are privately owned leaving only the remaining 51.4 percent to public ownership.
SOIBUG
NIA official on a piece of land that was attached by it in a terror funding case.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) attached two houses of sons of banned Hizb-ul-Mujahideen’s chief Syed Salahuddin. Shahid Yusuf lives in Soibug and Syed Ahmad Shakeel in Rambagh Srinagar. NIA spokesperson said they “had been receiving funds from abroad from the associates of their father and overground workers of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.” Their properties were attached under Section 33(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the NIA said. In August 2018, the NIA arrested Shakeel, who was working as a lab technician at SKIMS Soura. In August 2022, the administration sacked Salahuddin’s third son Syed Abdul Mueed, Manager, IT, Jammu Kashmir Entrepreneur Development Institute.
Srinagar Tulip Garden which attracted 375 thousand tourists was open for 33 days, unlike 21 days in 2022.
JAMMU
LG Manoj Sinha inaugurated 576 residential accommodations for PM Package Employees on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.
Days after Padma Bushan awardee, Muzaffar Hussain Baig said the assembly election can take place after the general election across India, LG Manoj Sinha said his administration wants Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir to be held on time. He maintained that three-tier Panchayati Raj System is working very well under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Panchayats will be completing their five-year term in November-December this year and elections to them will have to be conducted in October-November. Polls to Panchayats were held in November-December 2018 after nearly four decades in Jammu and Kashmir during President’s Rule after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support to Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP Government in the erstwhile State.
With 60000 specimens, the 51-year-old Kashmir University Herbarium (KASH) is the only address for studying the diverse plant basket of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh. In near future, it is planning to get digitized, reports Insha Shirazi
Mrs and Mr Dr Ralph R Stewart, the last major botanist who immensely contributed to the taxonomy in Kashmir.
It has been a phenomenal growth. The Kashmir University Herbarium, founded in 1972 by AR Naqshi with a meagre collection of 500 species in a single room, has now blossomed into a haven of Himalayan plant specimens with a staggering 60,000 plant specimens. Known globally for its unique and endemic plant diversity, the herbarium is a magnet for plant enthusiasts and researchers. As early as 1980, the Herbarium was recognised by the International Bureau for Plant Taxonomy and Nomenclature based in New York, under the acronym KASH. Housed in the University’s Centre for Biodiversity and Taxonomy (CBT), it had only 12,000 plant specimens, then. In the last four decades, the collects have gone up five times.
Index Herbarium puts this herbarium and rank three in the North-Western Himalayas of India. Although Central National Herbarium, Kolkata is home to more than 200000 plant specimens and Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, and IIIM of Jammu have more than 12000 plant specimens each, none of these major herbariums has a collection as diverse and unique as that of the Kashmir University Herbarium.
Professionals associated with the herbarium have collected the plant species from diverse habitats across Jammu and Kashmir. It has plants that grow in Guraze, Tulail, Karnah, Keran, Badherwah, Doda, Kishtwar, Warwun, Marwah, Dachin, Padder, Rajouri, Poonch, Drass, Kargil, Zanskar, and Nubra. Part of the collection was sent to renowned herbaria including the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew, besides various others within India.
The Preservation
“Herbarium is a dried plant specimen collected through different techniques. We go to the field and collect them, dry them in newspapers or blotting paper, depending on the moisture content,” Akhtar H Malik, Junior Scientist and Curator for Biodiversity and Taxonomy (CBT) at the Kashmir University Herbarium (KASH), said while explaining the process of collecting and preserving plant specimens. “After drying, we paste these specimens on specialized sheets called herbarium sheets, which have an international standard size of 29×41.5 cm. On the bottom side of the plant specimen, we paste a special label known as the herbarium label that has data like the spot where it was collected, location, date, habitat, etc. After that, we transfer these plant specimens to the herbarium and arrange them according to the Bentham and Hooker systems. Nowadays, we arrange them in herbarium compactors according to the family of the plant specimens.”
However, preserving these plant specimens for long-term storage requires more care. “We use chemicals to preserve these plant specimens at the time of pasting on specialized Herbarium sheet. Then, the second step is to use a small amount of mercuric chloride with glue because plants that we collect from different places, such as aquatic bodies, can be contaminated by pests. After that, we keep them in fumigation chambers with chemicals like Para dichlorobenzene and naphthalene for 10 days until these chemicals are exposed. Finally, we transfer them to herbarium compactors.” Malik added.
These plant specimens last for a long time. “We have species that are more than 100 years old, collected by British botanists from Kashmir,” Malik said. “They collected a lot of specimens from the Himalayas of Kashmir and kept those specimens in Dehradun. We obtained 10 specimens from them and kept them in our Herbarium.”
These plant specimens are not only important for scientific research but also for education and cultural heritage. “Every year we get students from schools, colleges, and Universities. If this herbarium would not be there a researcher or student might have to go to another place to submit their specimen,” Malik said.
The Importance
KASH (Kashmir University Herbarium) holds a huge collection and has emerged as a valuable resource for identifying unknown and rare plant species.
“We have specimens of Kuth (Saussurea costus) and Kahzaban (Arnebia benthamii) that identify the genuine from similar plants, said Malik. “These specimens are not only useful for researchers and scholars but also for students who visit our herbarium to learn about plant diversity.”
The curator at KASH Herbarium at the University of Kashmir explains things to visitors. KL Image Special Arrangement
Herbariums are crucial for documenting plant diversity. “We can create a flora or inventory of plant species based on herbarium data. We can also determine the location of a particular plant species with the help of herbarium specimens,” added Malik.
Off late, KASH has also become a popular destination for students, scholars, and researchers from different colleges, schools, and universities. Besides, Herbariums represent Kashmir’s natural heritage of plants.
Climate Change
The herbarium can be used as a tool to determine how the phenology of plants changes due to climate change. Now, some plants flower in February. “We can take historical data from the Herbarium of these plants whose flowering was preponing, by one month,” Malik said. “The collectors collected these plants for the herbarium when the flowering was seen in March but now it is February. It clearly explains the climate change impact.”
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared at least six medicinal and aromatic plant species on the red list of extinction in Jammu and Kashmir. “We can do mapping of extinct plants. We write the herbaria data of the plant specimens, location, its geo coordinates and make a map about their distribution range then and now,” Malik said. “Suppose we have 50 locations in herbarium specimens but on the ground, we can locate 10 or 15 locations and we go for their In-situ conservation.”
The data on medicinal plants in the herbarium is collected by scholars from different locations of Kashmir like Gulmarg, Kokernag, and Daksum.. When they go to collect the specimens after 30 years and fail to locate the particular specimen, it reflects a shift in climate change, land use patterns, population expansion, habitat fragmentation or any other reason.
A Rich Collection
“I have visited the KASH 8-10 times. In comparison to established herbaria, it is an active herbarium of northwestern Himalaya and houses a rich collection of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions. This has a collection of very remote areas which are not found in any other herbariums,” Dr Priyanka, Principal Scientist CSIR, National Botanical Researcher Institute Lucknow (NBRI) said. “If we want to study plant diversity of Jammu and Kashmir and Himalayan you can sit in Kashmir University herbarium and compile a lot of data on plant diversity.”
Priyanka is working on the Himalayas. Though the Herbarium of Kolkata has an almost 200 years old collection, the specimens are not in good condition.
“My 20 students have visited KASH because it is mandatory. It is important for Kashmir and Ladakh flora as they are representing a good amount of plant diversity in India,” Priyanka said. “The main collectors of the KASH are well-renowned taxonomists. The specimens are well-identified and well-researched and represent the Standard reference diversity.”
Plant Collectors In Kashmir
Improvement
With technology shifts in knowledge management, KASH is also changing. “We will go for digitization of all the specimens and we have submitted the proposal also,” Malik said. “We can use a high-end digital scanner and can scan the specimens and we can keep all those scanned images of all the plant specimens on the website by which the student and scholars across the world can asses those scanned images of plant specimens at home. It will take 3-4 years to execute this plan.”
The Financial Assistance for Science and Technology (FIST) grants the Kashmir University herbarium 10 lakh rupees for the herbarium compactors.
“Many herbariums in India and outside India have digitized their herbariums. If the herbarium of Kashmir gets digitized it would be the very fantastic job and it will be very useful for the researcher from outside Kashmir to assess the plant specimens sitting at the home. It will save time and money,” Dr Priyanka said.
A cultural anthropologist gives time to Kashmir’s famed Dal Lake and generates an impressive piece of literature, writes Insha Shirazi
Tourists enjoying a sunset in Dal lake, rendered golden by the sub. KL Image Bilal Bahadur
Michael J Casimir’s The Cultural Ecology of the Dal Lake in Kashmir is a thorough and instructive exploration of one of the most exquisite and significant bodies of water. The lake has natural and cultural significance. Well known for its beauty, the lake is a significant source of income.
Casimir paints a clear picture of how the lake has been shaped over the centuries and how it still matters for contemporary culture and ecology. A professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Cologne, Casimir has spent a lot of time in the field studying ecology, economy, and environmental management.
The book goes into great length on the lake’s intricate ecosystem, the history of houseboats, and water transportation. It offers details about the evolution of tourism and its literal paralysis owing to political upheaval in the 1980s and 1990s. While detailing Kashmir’s transition to Islam, the book offers a sketch of Kashmir’s “caste systems”, sectarianism, marital customs and social structure.
The book dives into the ins and outs of Dal Lake while detailing its ecosystem. It explains the development of the houseboat and water transportation.
The key focus of the book is the exploration of the lifestyle of the Hanji people, a group of fishermen living in the lake and how they play an essential role in the advancement of culture, the economy, and aesthetics. He provides an in-depth look at the Lake market gardens, raised fields, and floating gardens, and how the residents make an artificial landscape on the water and plant vegetables, flowers, weeds, and water lilies.
The book explains how market gardeners plan their gardens based on weather trends and how the 2014 flood affected the growth of the lake. Offering interesting insights into intriguing lotus gardens, the book explains how the lotus rhizomes are a source of revenue. An interesting and engaging read, the book provides an enlightening and informative look into the lives of the Hanjis and how essential they are to the economy and ecology of Srinagar city.
A man clears snow from the roof of his houseboat during heavy snowfall at river Jehlum in Srinagar
The Houseboats
Detailing the history and evolution of the houseboats, the book does not forget to link the other economies and offer a window to explain how modern technologies like the cell phone has impacted space. It offers an unbiased examination of the impacts of human-driven development on the ecology of the lake and its inhabitants, exploring both the positive and negative effects. He also provides a thorough discussion of the lake’s many fish species, vegetation, and water birds, as well as the issue of sewage pollution. The author offers insight into the lake’s ecology and how it has changed over the centuries as a result of human-driven development.
The Pollution
Off late, the lake has been facing severe environmental issues due to the unregulated construction of various buildings on its banks, and the overuse of fertilizers for agricultural purposes. Massive concentration of fertilizers has resulted in the death of many native fish and aquatic species, including the now incredibly rare Schizothorax niger.
The government has relocated many of the local fishermen. It has made efforts to improve the lake’s condition, such as implementing sewage treatment programmes and providing better access to roads, basic sanitation, and quality education. Flagging the issues facing the lake, particularly its deterioration due to sedimentation, domestic sewage, and other human activities, the author has observed that success is eluding the policymakers.
Painting a grim picture of Lake’s future, the author believes that proper funding and support from the government can help the water body to regain its pristine status. The author argues that the political forces in power often have conflicting interests, and this can lead to the people of Kashmir being disconnected from their spiritual roots. To protect the iconic Lake, the author argues that both the public and the governing authorities must engage in actions that uphold the teachings of Islam. This will not only preserve the natural beauty of the lake and its surroundings but also preserve the culture and spiritual identity of the region. To achieve this goal, it is crucial that the general public cooperates with the government and that the government implements its policies in a manner that serves the best interests of the people.
Once upon a time, the garden was an address for peak summer bathing, swimming and prayers. Now, Sher Bagh is a place for a brief halt for patients visiting the women’s hospital, reports Aasiya Nazir
Once the town’s coolest place for prayers, fresh air, and rest, Anantnag’s Sher Bagh is a sort of ruin now. Its glory is lost, and so is its quality of water and the freshwater fish ponds that would help kids pick up swimming and understand the aquatic life.
It is a historic garden. Residents attribute it to the Mughal era insisting that the pleasure-seeking occupiers laid most of the gardens in Kashmir including the south. However, history lacks a clear idea to vindicate the claim.
“Till 1951, the discharge from the Andar Nag spring had created a marsh on the spot,” M Salim Baig, the INTACH convenor in Jammu and Kashmir said. “One day when Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah visited the town, the residents talked about the marsh and he suggested it be converted into the garden for the locality and since then it is named Sher Bagh.”
Baigh said he has checked with the historians and they have revealed that the residents went to neighbouring Mattan wherefrom they got fish and were introduced to the newly refurbished garden. Andar Bagh has a spring called Nagbal and the discharge made a small waterfall. Given the fact that there are a few references to the garden prior to 1947, there is a possibility that there might have been some kind of garden which was in duse and mismanaged and resulted in a marsh. “Mughals avoided laying gardens in the towns. All the Mughal gardens are far away from the population. They avoided laying a major garden in Srinagar.”
The neighbouring Rani Bagh, part of which houses an educational institution, is attributed to the Dogra period.
Sher Bagh is located on the foot of a hill that is home to a Sulphur spring, the Andar Nag. In fact, the discharge from this spring lands in Sher Bagh and moves through the neighbouring localities and eventually gets into the Jhelum. The water channel, however, is in ruins as the discharge has gone down.
Even though the water discharge has gone down, fish are hardly seen in the ponds, the garden still holds its majestic looks. It has enormous Chinars and during summers it is lush green.
A view of Sher Bagh in Anantnag garden in February 2023. KL Image: Shah Hilal
What makes the Andar Nag and Sher Bagh premises interesting is that it has the stakeholding of all the faiths. The Nag premises have a temple and a Gurudwara. The Sher Bagh has an open mosque, where, till recently prayers were offered five times a day. It is an impressive platform that has a freshwater pond and various water channels surrounding it. The main pond has been a public swimming pool for generations. However, it was never called a mosque and was always referred to as Nimazgah.
“We used to swim in smaller channels and once we would get trained, we will finally swim in the main pond,” Abdul Rashid, a resident, now a doctor said. Originating from the sulphur spring, the water would normally be cold in spring and slightly warmer in winter. “It was a place for recreation and picking the real-life skill, the swimming and in between, there would be prayers.”
= Now, the garden is the casualty of the times. Officially it is managed by the fisheries department but there is no any fish in the ponds and the channels. The space that would be crowded by the residents during afternoons till late in the evening is now the resting place for the attendants of women admitted to the Maternity and Child Care Hospital.
The park space has been relocated. Realigned, it is craving for upkeep and proper maintenance.
Residents allege that the park has received little to no attention in the last many years. They claimed that visitors have ceased to get in. The fish have disappeared. They attribute it to the pollution over the hill.
“When I was a kid the number of fishes in the ponds was such that the surface was never visible,” resident, Mohammad Yousuf, said. “The water was so clean that we used to drink it. Now the water is polluted.”
Even though it lost its beauty, the garden retains its utility. Located near one of the busiest markets in the town, people still get in, take a rest and leave.
Society has equally contributed to the unmaking of this space. Though enough and adequate parking space is available near Rani Park, most of the people park their vehicles outside Sher Bagh, polluting its atmosphere. The parking at the main gate of the Bagh is impacting business and sometimes hinders the emergency cases in the hospital in their movement.
Another telling mess of the park is that the people who have lunch in the park, throw away a lot of waste. The park managers have failed to offer any kind of system that will enable the space to stay clean. Dustbins are there but nobody uses them.
Those visiting the park have their own issues. Zaina Begum is a frequent visitor. “The single biggest issue that the people face is the closure of the washrooms,” Begum said. “The public toilets were so dirty that they were locked, once and for all.”
Residents said the park is facing a crisis because there is multiple stakeholdings. While the property belongs to the Waqf Board, fish are supposed to be the Fisheries Department’s responsibility and the park is to be maintained by the Floriculture department. Residents said it would be ideal if the Bagh is given to a private party that will maintain it and manage it at a cost. “There is no harm in people paying some coins for spending a few hours in the park,” one resident suggested.
They may all be boatmen but they have a lot of divisions dictated by the services they deliver and the professions they adopt. Insha Shirazi reports about the newer challenges to the people living in Dal lake
“Houseboats were founded at the end of the eighties by Colonel R Sartorius, vc; and Sir H Harvey, Bart, and Martyn Kennard, I think, owned the first two crafts,” Lt Col Joshua Duke, the British Residency surgeon in Srinagar for many years, wrote in 1900. “Mr Kennard’s boat cost a great deal of money and is still on the river.”
Duke’s series of guidebooks, a huge collection of graphic descriptions of the nineteenth and twentieth-century Kashmir, however, acknowledges the fact that the boats existed in Kashmir prior to the intervention as well. “Since then they have multiplied in variety, shape, size, cost, etc, to a certain extent they take the place of houses, still very deficient in Srinagar.” The Doonga boat, however, existed.
Those were the days when the boatmen (Heanz) were the key drivers of life. They were the main transporters within the twin Kashmir lakes and managed most of the cargo between South and North Kashmir. Movement within Srinagar was only because of them. Given this advantage over others, they were close to any visitor that came to Kashmir. Most of the Kashmir travelogues are based on their interaction with the boatmen.
Divisions
Since then, diversity among the boatmen existed. There were different types of boatmen and that sub-division still exists. The divisions are based strictly on the type of professions the particular family was engaged with.
Fishing is a major economy for the communities living on the Wullar lake shores. Off late, however, the fishermen said the government is contributing negatively to the sub-sector putting them to losses. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur
Fisherman: These are the Gadeh–haenz’s whose main source of income is fishing. They live within and around the lake of Dal and Wular. Their men catch fish and their women sell it in the market.
Lotus Growers: They are called Gaer Haenz. These people are primarily farmers who grow Lotus and chestnuts. Though both grow naturally, they harvest the nadroo (Nilumbium) and the chestnut and market them. Water chestnuts mostly grow in Wular. Some of them, off late, have lost their access to water areas where the plant grows rendering them jobless. Now, they work for others during harvesting. Lotus stem apart, they also harvest green and black trapa, fodder, and other plants.
Vegetable Growers: In their own parlance, they are known as demb-heanz. They are the main cultivators of the Dal lake and most of the vegetables marketed in Srinagar city come from them.
Boatmen: Despite the fact that Doonga’s no longer exist but a major section of the boatmen who own houseboats and shikara taxis are locally known as Dungehhaenz. They offer accommodation to tourists in their luxurious houseboats and have decent careers doing so. This category of boatmen is the most advanced and economically sound. They are cosmopolitan in nature as they have relations across the world. Some of them have retained their houseboats and are living in plush homes. A number of them, now own good hotels as well.
Hunters: Though they do not exist, there has been a sub-group called Ayer-heanz, who made a living by hunting. It is said they used to live in or around forests.
Transporters: Kashmir’s transportation and cargo were managed by horsemen or boatmen. Boatmen who owned huge barges for moving cargo were locally known as Bahatsi–heanz. Interestingly, the section of these transporters who were transporting timber was called Mata-heanz.
Challenges
All these people have been under pressure for one or the other reason. The last 100 years saw the complete disappearance of the transportation dungas as the roads were built even within the Dal Lake. Hundreds of families were relocated off the lake under the Dal restoration plan. They have homes far away from the ecosystem they were brought up in.
Now, newer tensions have cropped up. “I have been running a Shikara boat in the Dal Lake for 40 years. I pick up customers from various ghats to the houseboats,” Ghulam Rasool said. “Our boats have problems but we are not being permitted to repair them.”
Official records suggest there were 1103 houseboats and Dunga boats in 2000 and 157 of them were decommissioned in 2007-08, reducing their number to 910. With repairs being denied the numbers will go down further as fires and routine wear and tear are taking their toll. Insiders in the lake said the number of working houseboats could be much lower as no new houseboat was built in the last more than two decades.
Tariq Ahmad Pingloo a houseboat owner in Dal Lake said they have been squeezed into the lake. “It is rare to see hanjis in the Jhelum River. Quite a few houseboats are left in the river now,” he asserted.
Caught in Kashmir’s age-old peculiar casteism – that sees them as a clan apart, the boatmen are regretting a peculiar stereotyping of the community. “We are being accused of polluting the lakes,” Tariq said. “Why do not people understand the fact that the lake is our universe and we cannot pollute it because it is linked to our survival?” The government has gone to court, more than once, accusing the community living in the lake of polluting the water body. This is the key factor for rejecting the repair request by owners.
SRINAGAR: Kargil and most of the erstwhile Purig region celebrated the Mamani Festival by displaying the traditional foods and the local culture. With the help of the tourism department, it is being celebrated on January 21.
Kargil men display various tools that are part of the culture and routine life on the ethnic Mamani Festival at Steyangkung village in Barsoo Kargil on January 22, 2023. KL Image: Special Arrangement
Mamani is a traditional food festival of Purig (Kargil) that indicates the reduction in the harshness of winter temperatures. It symbolises community brotherhood as every household in the village brings food and the whole community eats it jointly.
Resident in Kargil said the festival is celebrated across the bet from Kharmang in Baltistan (on the other side of the LoC) to Chiktan area in Kargil
Elders suggest that the festival’s history goes back to the ancient period when the people would give food to departed family members. Then, they used to exchange food with their relatives and neighbours and worship a variety of spirits (Lha). The tradition envisaged the people preparing good dishes of the previous year and assembling at a centrally located place called Chagrah. There they mix the foods and distribute them amongst themselves.
Kargil women display various foods that are part of routine life in Ladakh on ethnic Mamani Festival at Steyangkung village in Barsoo Kargil on January 22, 2023. This year, they had prepared more than 25 different dishes and traditional art works for display on the ancient festival. KL Image: Special Arrangement
The tradition exists amongst both the communities that inhabit Ladakh – Muslims as well as Buddhists. Elders say the tradition dates back to the era when the region followed Bonisim, a faith system that was replaced by Buddhism in the region. The Bonisim followers would pray the natural forces – the water, sun, air.
Now, it has changed a bit as the residents avoid praying for the sprits. It has emerged as a community food festival. People prepare various traditional dishes such as thukpa, popot (grain soup), hrtsrap khur (leavened bread), mar-khur, azoq (deep fried bread), poli (buckwheat pancakes), curd, suggoo (kash or pachae) and other foods. They then gather in the Hlchangra (meeting place in the village) on the evening of January 20, and early morning of January 21, every year.
This date is significant as it marks the beginning of the second month of the Ladakhi Calendar. Once everyone has gathered, the celebration of Mamani commences and people start to distribute the collected dishes amongst each other.
According to oral history, the celebrations included the tradition of a small Mamani called Maqsoomi Mamani, which was celebrated on the same day at dawn. People would light a fire in the courtyard of their home as part of this celebration. Off late, however, this practice has been stopped for various reasons.
There is another tradition linked to this festival, which is still retained as part of the routine. As part of the celebration, a portion of each dish is sent to the homes of girls who have moved elsewhere after marriage.
There is another interesting tradition linked to Mamani in which children visit each home in the village or neighbourhood to collect money to organise a celebration called Issun in the evening. This is still practiced in Chanchik neighbourhood of Kargil town.
