For Younis Anjum, winters are not the same in Kashmir.[break]
Driving through Qamarwari on the way to Gulmarg, Anjum pointed to the snowless Zabarwan mountain range on the right side of his seat. The middle-aged man shared his reminiscences of his childhood when the mountain peaks were capped in snow not only in December but the entire year. He then pondered, paused and precisely spoke about the early blooming season of flowers in the Kashmir Valley. He further continued with the climate change patterns, the erratic snowfall and rain, and the damage to agriculture.
“These are visible changes to the common people,” Anjum said, speaking about climate change.
Kashmir is one of the pivotal areas in the world facing the climate change crisis.
At 9,000 feet in Gulmarg, 52 kilometers from Srinagar and one of Kashmir’s skiing destinations, the signs are visible. In early December, the Gulmarg area would be covered with a meter of snow or more, said Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, a geologist at the University of Kashmir’s department of geology and geophysics. But there wasn’t even half a foot of snow now, and the skiing season hadn’t even begun in Gulmarg.
“We used to have lot of snow and glaciers here, which aren’t anymore,” Romshoo said, pointing to one of the corners from where he stood. “This is the story about the Pir Panjal range and the Himalaya also. Snowfall is also very erratic and scanty.”
Romshoo further pointed out that the climate change issue will impact the local economy, too, with agriculture and hydroelectric projects facing brutal challenges in the future. He also claimed that the changes in the glacier patterns will eventually hit the South Asian region hard, and countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan can face serious drinking water scarcity.
While scientists and geologists are pointing out the causes and effects of global warming, for people like Ghulam Kadir, who takes tourists around in his shikara (boat) on the Dal Lake, global warming and climate change, however, don’t exist in his vocabulary.
Paddling his Big Little Lily Deluxe Shikara, Kadir believes God controls the temperatures, and the rising mercury is due deforestation.
As deforestation has heavily hit the Kashmir Valley in recent years, the once lush green streets and neighborhoods look bare and deserted. But to restore the damage from human destruction, local Kashmiris like Abdul Hamid Bhat are stepping forward.
Bhat, a local businessman and car dealer, has adopted his own way of helping the environment. In 2008, he planted 6,000 trees; and this year, at the cost of half a million Rupees, he plans to plant 50,000 saplings in different parts of the Kashmir Valley. He said he wants to use his money for a good cause, and is doing his part of social corporate responsibility.
But it is not only the Kashmiris who are concerned about climate change in their region. Supporting them and corresponding with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, American singer and songwriter Terra Naomi performed for the locals at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Center in Srinagar.
Naomi, who gained fame through the YouTube hit, “Say It’s Possible,” a song about global warming, appealed to the audience through her song to be aware of the changes and consequences caused by climate change.
“I’m not a scientist, or a politician,” Naomi said. “I’m a musician. Music seems to reach out to the world and cross every border and touch different peoples as a unifying force. We would like to raise awareness for this region in its struggles against climate change.”
Usman Ahmad, mission director for Mercy Corps India and responsible for bringing the first Western artist to Kashmir, said the reason behind the concert was to send a message to the world and raise awareness of the reality that places like Kashmir are being threatened by climate change.
“Let’s listen to the message of the music,” Ahmad said of Naomi’s song.
Shahid Rassool, director of the Educational Multimedia Research Center at the University of Kashmir, credited different media channels for highlighting the climate change issues.
“As media persons, we’ve to come forward and put our resources together and help them reach people and convince them to come forward and work on individual levels so that we can save this planet,” Rasool said.
And while different people and organizations are gearing toward the issue, the University of Kashmir, in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, has established a computer simulation station to download the global climate model to the local scale, which will thus allow research and the results thereof at local levels. The simulation that started in October will have its end results by April 2010, Romshoo said, adding that it will give exact facts and figures on how different sectors of the economy are affected—agriculture, soco-economic development—so adaptation techniques can be executed at local levels.
“The findings from this work need to be implemented,” Romshoo said. “That’s where the government comes in.”
Related story
SHIFT for Our Planet: Youths urge authorities to make climate j...
