Thawed Winters Fret Valley Vanishing Winters, Extreme Weather Events Threaten Culture, Livelihoods

Old people's rueful memories, irrigation woes for traditional crops, foreign species taking over local flora define the absence of snow-laden winters in Kashmir valley. Athar Parvaiz writes about how climate change-induced erratic weather patterns are set to change the landscape of the valley.

- Athar Parvaiz

Seventy-year-old Abdul Razzaq Mir, a retired government employee in Kupwara, is mystified how life in winters in Kashmir has changed so rapidly over the past decade, especially, in the past few years. Mir had never imagined a winter without snow in Kashmir. But much to his disbelief and disappointment, he has already witnessed a few snow-less winters in Kashmir valley over the past decade.

A Septuagenarian's Retrospection

"When I was a child and an adult, we would get stuck in our homes most often during winters for days together owing to heavy spells of snowfall measuring sometimes above our waist levels," recalls Mir. Not anymore.

"Those kinds of snowfalls have stopped occurring altogether. Now, even brief spells of snowfall during winters have become so rare in Kashmir that people offer special prayers almost every winter for the occurrence of snowfall with long droughts becoming a norm in the winters," says Mir.

According to Mir, winters in the valley during his child and adulthood would present an entirely different scene as people would engage themselves in artistic works indoors - some would knit grass mats, some would knit sweaters and caps while kids would play indoor games as well as enjoying themselves sliding down the heaps of snow (fallen from the roofs), engaging themselves in snowball fights and making snow sculptors such as snowmen, bears, crocodiles, lions, etc.