I left Kashmir on September 1 after attending a friend’s father’s 75th birthday celebration in Srinagar. The event was held near Dal Lake and the famed Chinar trees were resplendent. Kashmiris clad in saris and pashmina shawls gathered to reminisce about the land they called home.
It was raining as my plane took off from Srinagar. I remember worrying about whether that would cause flight delays. The rain continued the next day. At that time, I told my friend that when good events happen, the rain gods send their benevolent blessings with a shower. In the Carnatic music tradition, which I belong to, there is a raga called Amritavarshini that brings rain to parched tropical earth when sung. It was this that I had in mind when I made the comment about auspicious rain. I didn't realise then that this was no gentle shower. The heavens were unleashing their fury; and this, combined with the melting of glaciers, would result in an apocalyptic flood, the likes of which the Kashmir valley had not seen in more than a century.
The flood waters are now slowly receding but the number of floods keeps growing. The Indian government has to spend many millions of dollars on rebuilding Kashmir. Thanks to the speed with which this natural catastrophe overtook the state, there has been no concerted coordination of international relief.
Instead, there are terrific grassroots efforts by organisations such as JKfloodrelief.org, which is run by volunteers; Uber, the global taxi service that has used its cars to pick up medicines and other relief materials from Delhi; Goonj, an NGO that collects and distributes vaccines, blankets and other rehabilitation materials; the Uday Foundation and several others. The state government, which was overwhelmed at the scale of the disaster, is now limping back into action. And questions are being asked. Why did the floods happen? Who is to blame? How can further floods be prevented?
One reason is staring at Kashmiris quite literally in the face: the Himalaya mountains. Thanks to climate change, Himalayan glaciers are shattering and spooling downwards into the valley, causing rivers to overflow. Combine this with poor urban planning and a disregard for the environment, and the Kashmir floods, as some experts say, were a “disaster waiting to happen”. Rains proved to be the tipping point but rampant construction was the chief culprit.
In India, it is fashionable to say that we have to focus on growth above all. China, with its vast construction programme, is viewed as the model when it comes to infrastructure and growth. Environmental sustainability is seen as old fashioned and slow. Some builders dismiss talk of sustainability as a “rich country’s problem that India must only tackle after we have provided a roof over every citizen’s head”. As the Kashmir and Uttarakhand floods have shown, this approach is short-sighted and economically unviable.
Part of the reason why more than 500,000 people were left without homes was because of rampant construction on river embankments and in flood zones. Massive deforestation on the mountains increased the flow of water down to the valley. Kashmir’s countless lakes, once catchment areas for water, are now choked with human waste and filth. Nature, normally an ally against natural disasters, has been dismissed and run roughshod over.
The government has said that construction on river beds will be put under scrutiny. This is an important first step in rehabilitating Kashmir.
Kashmir occupies a conflicted yet sacred place in the Indian imagination. Much of Indian philosophy came from the Hindu scholars who populated Kashmir from the 8th to the 12th centuries. This beautiful land inspired many Mughal emperors, including Jahangir who first called it paradise on Earth. Even today, the land inspires fierce loyalty.
My friend’s father flew thousands of kilometres to spend his birthday in the land that nurtured him. Had he known how much the floods would ravage his beloved land, I imagine that he would never had left Srinagar.
Shoba Narayan is the author of Return to India: a Memoir
