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(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
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By Mohsin Gulzar
Kashmir has always spoken softly. In the rustle of chinar leaves. In the stillness of mountain air. And in the hush before the snowfall. But these days, that signature serenity is changing.
Explosions echo through the hills, roads snake across ridgelines, and forests are falling to the rhythm of machines.
India is building fast. And Kashmir, long isolated by geography and politics, is being pulled into that momentum.
Projects like the Zojila Tunnel and the four-lane Srinagar-Jammu highway promise better travel and economic access. But as the dust rises and trees fall, many here are wondering: what are we leaving behind?
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In Ramban and Anantnag, locals speak of landslides in places where the ground once held firm. Farmers watch fields slide downhill. Debris from highway work clogs natural water channels.
A single storm now leaves roads cut off for days. It’s hard not to connect the dots.
Then there’s Dal Lake. The lake once mirrored the sky so clearly that poets lost themselves in it. Now, it reflects something else: plastic waste, dying lilies, and shrinking borders.
Despite years of clean-up drives and fancy promises, Dal is still struggling. And yet, shikarawalas show up every day, paddling through weed-choked waters, because that’s the only life they’ve known.
In Gulmarg and Sonamarg, hotels are climbing higher into the hills. Tourists and locals arrive by the thousands, leaving behind plastic, pressure, and footprints.
Meadows that once bloomed wildflowers now serve as parking spots. The worry is simple: how much can the mountains take before they stop giving back?
But Kashmir is not just a story of loss. Quietly, without fuss, people are pushing back.
In villages near Shopian and Ganderbal, some farmers are turning to indigenous seeds and natural farming. They’re saving water, keeping chemicals out of the soil, and trusting the old ways again.
Groups like Youth Convention J&K and J&K ECO Watch are cleaning water bodies, holding workshops, and planting hope.
These are young people who’ve grown up seeing more bunkers than butterfly gardens. Still, they’ve chosen to believe in change.
Across India too, similar stories unfold. Ladakh is betting big on solar energy. Sikkim has banned chemical farming altogether. And in far-off Indore, garbage once piled sky-high is now being turned into compost and clean parks.
All of it proves that change doesn’t need to shout. It just needs to start.
The country’s larger climate pledges, like the 2070 net-zero promise, sound impressive on global stages. But in places like Kashmir, those dates feel distant.
People here want action they can touch. Roads that don’t wreck rivers. Tourism that respects nature. Jobs that don’t trade away jungles.
It’s not an impossible ask. Development isn’t the enemy. But blind development-without local voices, without environmental checks-is.
What Kashmir needs isn’t less progress. It needs better progress.
Because progress that buries rivers and mountains in concrete doesn’t last. And in places like Kashmir, the environment isn’t just scenery. It’s livelihood. It’s culture. It’s memory.
So maybe it’s time we ask different questions. Not“How fast can we build?” but“Who benefits?” Not“How much can we take?” but“How much can we give back?”
In the end, the goal shouldn’t just be a $5 trillion economy. It should be a future where our children can still walk in clean air, drink from safe rivers, and hear the silence of the mountains, not the drilling.
And if we get that right, we won’t just save Kashmir. We’ll save the idea of India itself.
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Mohsin Gulzar is a fourth-year law student at the University of Kashmir and currently a judicial intern with Hon’ble Justice P.S. Narasimha at the Supreme Court of India.
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