Alarm bells ringing!

Kashmir is literally boiling due to high temperatures. The valley is facing extreme heat waves severely affecting normal life and posing a serious threat to water bodies besides agriculture and power sectors.

Surrounded by mountains laced with lush forests, Kashmir on July 5 witnessed the third hottest day ever at 37.4 degrees Celsius after over seven decades! The highest July temperature was recorded at 38.3 degrees Celsius in 1946, followed by 37.8 in 1953. This June was the hottest since 1978.

There is a rise of around 6 degrees Celsius in Kashmir. The situation has been compounded by a prolonged dry spell causing a rainfall deficit of 50 per cent. Kashmir’s lifeline, the river Jhelum, is almost dry due to heat waves and dry spells. A prolonged heat wave has pushed Jhelum and its tributaries to record lows. The water level in the river at Sangam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district dipped to just 0.19 feet on July 2, the lowest reading in the last five years for this time of year.

There are clear indicators of climate change in Kashmir from the last several years. Imagine a water crisis in a place dotted with glaciers, forests, mountains and water bodies. We have witnessed dry and warm winters for the past 5 years. This year in February, springs in Achabal, one of the famous Mughal gardens, in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, dried up for the first time Channel in history. Its flow was restored after a spell of rain. Due to less snowfall and rain, springs are not getting recharged.

Like Kashmir, England and the United Kingdom too witnessed the second warmest summer since 1884. The heat wave in June has severely overloaded the European power systems with rising electricity demand and doubled daily power prices. Eight people died across Europe as intense heatwaves gripped the continent, triggering health alerts and forest fires and forcing the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant.

As per the United Nations Environment Programme, the world is in a climate emergency. It categorically states that unless greenhouse gas emissions fall dramatically, warming could pass 2.9°C this century, which would have catastrophic consequences for life on this planet.

Back to Kashmir, rising temperatures and a dry spell must set alarm bells ringing. We don’t have large-scale industries like in England and other foreign countries. It was Kashmir’s cooler temperatures that attracted the British to enjoy their holidays in the valley before 1947. Subsequently, Kashmir became the favourite haunt of foreigners as a holidaying destination. What went wrong with Kashmir? It is a stark fact that in the last over three decades, we wantonly and without any remorse vandalised our fragile environment. We felled countless trees in forests, we vandalised mountains and karewas for extracting construction material, and we filled water bodies, wetlands, springs and agricultural land to construct our mansions! We constructed roads and buildings and increased human footfall in eco-fragile areas! This resulted in an increase in temperature.

“It is shocking to see Delhi and Rajasthan cooler than Kashmir. Our valley is literally burning. I have filed several cases of environmental conservation, but authorities are not serious. We need to make them accountable, remarked a noted environmental activist, MM Shuja.

Rising temperatures and dry spells are taking a heavy toll on Kashmir’s glaciers. The drought-like situation in the last 5 years has expedited the retreating of most of the glaciers in the Kashmir Himalaya. The matter of concern is that Kolahoi, the largest glacier of Kashmir’s Jhelum Basin, has been melting rapidly due to a spurt in temperature triggered by global warming and extreme pollution. Thajiwas, Hoksar, Nehnar, Shishram, and glaciers around Harmukh are melting fast. Fast retreating of glaciers because of global warming and pollution has created glacial lakes, which can be disastrous, in various mountain ranges of J&K besides Ladakh.

It must be noted that Jammu and Kashmir ranks third among the Himalayan areas which are vulnerable to climate change. In absence of regulation, forests, water bodies. J&K is confronted with environmental challenges due to global warming, unplanned urbanisation, deforestation and vandalisation of water bodies. Scientific studies have warned that Kashmir will experience frequent and longer droughts from the mid to end of the 21st century, thereby making it a new norm between 2051 and 2099 due to climate change.

People in Kashmir are caught between the devil and the deep sea due to weather fluctuations. After a spell of rain is prolonged, a dry spell triggers a flood-like situation. They are bearing the brunt of two weather extremes. This unprecedented fluctuation in temperature will have serious ramifications on our fragile ecosystem.

We are staring at a bleak future. Imagine if this trend of rising temperatures continues; how would our younger generations live? Climate change mainly triggered by haphazard developmental activities will, in the long run, severely hit Kashmir’s food, energy, and water security. Snowfall deficit and higher temperatures, besides cryosphere-related hazards like permafrost degradation triggering slope failures, will cause early snowmelt and glacier degeneration.

There is a ray of hope as the House Committee on Environment of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, led by Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, has made it categorically clear that the fragile ecological balance of J&K will be preserved. “Development must not come at the cost of the environment,” Tarigami remarked. This intent is required to save Kashmir from vandalisation.

We need to adapt scientific strategies to mitigate effects of climate change. There is a need to organise awareness programmes from villages to cities for minimising carbon emissions. We need a strong public movement to protect our natural resources. Our existence is at stake and the future of our younger generation is at risk!

The author is Executive Editor, Greater Kashmir.