WATER WOES

WATER WOES – RANDOM THOUGHTS THIS MORNING

BY WARVET

 

The other day, someone told me of the commotion at Srinagar riverfront as a number of houseboats had run aground. Jhelum had dried up after a prolonged dry spell with temperature hitting all time high of 37 Degrees C with schools being shut due to the unprecedented ‘Heat Wave’. It seemed apocalypse had finally arrived. It was 1530 h when I decided we should go to some cool place and I and my son Shreyas who was with us on vacation picked the Royal Enfield Scram 411 and announced to Hina we were off to Pir ki Gali. As son’s short vacation was ending she didn’t object, I suspected she didn’t know how far it was.

 

We zoomed out of Srinagar and revved on the NH to make good time. We left the NH at Pulwama and then rode through forests of apple orchards to reach the ‘Apple Town’ Shopian where we were surprised to see a beautiful crystal clear river in which taxi drivers were washing their cars. As we crossed the river on a bridge with beautiful apple themed street lights we entered the town and started ascending.

Immediately after the town evergreen glades of Devdar forests began. Being a Sunday, Kashmiri families were in strength picnicking. The best aspect of Kashmir is the thick family bond. You can see generations spending time together in beautiful gardens, valleys and meadows. They spread a carpet and bring out huge tiffins and samovars of Kahwa. Some carry stoves for cooking. Children can be seen playing. Mughals gifted Kashmiris the Gardens and people are making good use of those. Alas! We Himachalis have even today not developed the taste. To see a garden, we travel to Pinjore. We only build multi-storey concrete ugly parkings and Dhabas.

 

The river soon became a proper hill rivulet in full torrent with milky white water seething at the rocks. It was a steep climb of 50 km from Shopian. Whole path was appropriated by family picnics and by the time we reached Pir ki Gali pass, it was 1830h. We had driven non stop taking turns when tired. The bike was powerful and was never found wanting enroute. From the sweltering heat of plains we were now in pristine alpine meadow. It’s the ‘Mughal Route’ hkat was taken by the emperor and his entourage of a lakh when coming for holidaying in the valley. Nearby there were ruins of a Mughal Carawan Serai. Virgin peaks and mundane snow streams were seen all around. We started back soon and drove at speed due to obvious apprehensions. I skipped a heartbeat or two when I saw a crowd with lit candles in hand gathered around a mosque trying to stop us and wondered if some encounter had happened. We reached home at 9 PM uneventfully.

 

I noticed that the river had lot of water before Shopian and much of it was diverted for drinking water and irrigation purposes. Sometimes I feel we should not rob our rivers of their water. With most of the water diverted for irrigation and people, rivers die. Same is with origin of Jhelum from Verinag. Nag in Kashmiri means a spring and naturally there’s a plethora of ‘Nags’ all over the valley. I was surprised to see that Jhelum or ‘Vitasta’ as it was called originally in pre Islamic Kashmir, did not arise from a glacier but a huge spring not at all high in mountains. It’s a spring below thickly wooded Devdar forest. Mughal emperor Jahangir made or rather enlarged a pre-existing pool which was later maintained by Dogra rulers. A Shivling and some ancient idols are housed in the nooks around the pool. It’s a huge pool with crystal clear water. As a mini river exits it, I had tasted the sweet water that was flowing through most beautiful terraced Mughal Garden. On a Sunday, the garden is overcrowded with local families on picnic. Lot of water is diverted again for drinking and other purposes. Though the garden entry is by ticket, there is no effort to prevent its pollution. Children bath in it and sadly families wash their picnic food utensils in the pure streams. Thickly populated Anantnag adds enormous amount of pollutants. Beyond Srinagar, the water must be pure poison. Polythene, that is the bane of Kashmir is littered all over the place. Himachal though banned polythene more than 20 years ago is at loss to guess what to do with chipps and biscuit wrappings. Even that is proving too much. Faulty waste management policy of HP is ensuring garbage all over. But in Kashmir, its still more alarming.

 

Kashmir valleys are known for their wild flowers. While travelling to Kupwara I was pleasantly surprised to see banks of Lolab river strewn with beautiful flowers when I suddenly realised that there are no Blue flowers in nature! Closer scrutiny revealed that all the bushes along the river were loaded with plastic that was washed down during the flood! Since then I can’t help but only see this polythene wherever I go.

 

Himachal’s successive governments that swear by developing tourism do not know that tourists should be provided toilets and garbage should be collected from highways and viewpoints. HP government cannot provide a bench at the most popular view point below Charabra in Shimla. So I have no hope of them ever developing Tourism.

 

It’s rained now, the temperature has fallen and I saw the houseboats again floating though in shallow and polluted water. In morning News I saw that Beas in Kullu was in spate again this year. When I was in Kullu in late1980s, we had some devastating floods. During floods we used to go to the banks of river Beas and marvel at the power of nature. Many villagers gathered to get hold of floating timber. If the road was overrun by flood, we used to leave the bus, climb the hill and reboard another bus. It was called 'Trans shipment' by locals who had never set their eyes on a ship! Once I dropped my suitcase on a trek somewhere above Hanogi and it plummeted down around 200 mtr in the river. I luckily escaped slipping.  Once in 20 years there was major flood. Now its almost yearly. Today on X I saw that Malana Dam has broken and Bhuntar town is under threat. Malana and Khir Ganga were real heavens in my college times when you had to trek 20 km from Manikaran. As the power projects were built, these hidden havens were lost forever. These floods are man-made, mainly due to deforestation and construction. New roads are a major cause, leading to lot of landslides. Then, people too encroach upon riverbeds and get washed away in floods.

When I was in college, there was much talk of ‘exploiting’ the hydro power. We had a potential of generating 20000 Megawatts, we were told. By selling electricity, we would become a self-reliant state in 30 years. Gigantic Power projects were built in HP. Nathpha Jhakhri, Baspa have since destroyed Kinnaur, Parvati has devastated Kullu since then. But the state is still standing with begging bowl. Due to extensive tunnelling, natural springs dried up. Due to widening of roads, landslides cut off vast areas and made travel precarious. Yearly floods damage the power projects and kill scores. But money is nowhere to be seen. Last month government borrowed another 500 Crores to pay salary. Total debt has crossed 50000 crores, I think.

 

Today when I mentioned the candle march in Shopian to my Kashmiri friend he dismissed it with a waive of his hand “Oh! That was a prayer meet to invoke the mercy of Allah to bless us with rain and give respite from hellish heat!” He said.

                                                                                                          

 

P.S. - All Photos except houseboat from self, Houseboat from Mr Shaukat