Code Red for Kashmir's Living Legacy

As memory meets modern conservation to save Kashmir's symbol, the ancient Chinar facing an existence challenge gets a digital identity

- By IRFAN AMIN MALIK

On a cold afternoon in Srinagar, the rain settles gently on the bare branches of the Chinar trees. Their limbs stretch over streets. Beneath one such Chinar in the Muniwarabad area of the city, Ali Mohammad Sheikh pauses to look. A 50-year-old shopkeeper from Pulwama, Sheikh peers closely at its massive trunk, where a small metal plate bearing a QR code has been carefully fastened. It is something he has never seen before.

Wrapped in a grey pheran, Sheikh studies the tag with curiosity: "Only when I asked did I learn that the government has done this to document and protect these trees." The metal tag links the Chinar to a digital profile that records its age, girth, location, health, and ecological status. It is part of a wider conservation initiative that aims to give each surviving Chinar tree in Kashmir a unique identity, much like an Aadhaar number, in an effort to reverse decades of neglect and unchecked loss.