Articles by Abid Bashir Wani

Nazir Ahmed, a labourer, had bought a house in 1988 in the Achan area of Srinagar as land and home prices in the area were affordable for him then as compared to other areas of Srinagar. “When I shifted my belongings to the new house, I saw vehicles of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) disposing of garbage in an open area, just a few hundred meters away from my house,” recalls Nazir. Nazir did not think much of this at the time. But as time passed, the few truckloads of SMC laden with garbage from different areas of Srinagar and dumping…

On a foggy morning on December 4th, when night temperatures in Srinagar had plummeted to minus 3.4 degrees Celsius, Adil Ahmed, a labourer with Jammu and Kashmir-based Hassan Road Construction Company (HRCC) Ltd, was busy digging a road at Lal Chowk, the heart of Srinagar city. Ahmed, a resident of the Charar-e-Shareef area of Central Kashmir’s Budgam district had decided to stay back in Srinagar in winter to earn some extra bucks for his sister’s marriage slated for April next year. “At present, I am part of a project under Srinagar Smart City in Lal Chowk area,” says Ahmed. There…

Come winter and there is a surge in fire incidents in Srinagar — a city of 1.4 million — mostly in shops and homes. This year has seen no exception. On October 25th, fire damaged two residential structures in the old city area of Rajouri Kadal. “We called the Fire and Emergency Department control room in time, but fire tenders reached the site only about an hour later,” said Abdur Rashid, whose house was damaged in the blaze. “Had they reached the spot quicker, both houses would have been saved.” The fire started from his house and engulfed his neighbour’s…

After suffering badly for two consecutive years (2020-2021) due to COVID, Jammu and Kashmir’s ailing tourism sector is back on track with a bang. In January this year, the state’s tourism department launched a major promotion plan highlighting places other than the usual tourist spots like Gulmarg. The promotion seems to have worked, if one looks at the steady arrival of tourists in Srinagar. The plan entailed holding road shows in Gujarat, Bhubaneshwar, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Maharashtra and other states inviting tourists to Kashmir. The results have been more than satisfactory. Srinagar has been jam-packed with tourists since March and guests are…

Come the first signs of winter and 50-year-old Saleema, a resident of Panthachowk area of Srinagar, visits her 10-acre orchard for two hours daily to collect fallen leaves of the different variety of trees there. She also cuts small tree branches to keep with the leaves. Saleema along with her two daughters, Sab 15 and Iqra 13, then begin the process to turn the leaves and tree branches collected into a kind of coal to be used in fire-pots, popularly known as Kangris, a traditional heating pot which Kashmiris use to fight the bone chilling winter cold. Thanks to the…

On June 4th, 2021, a leopard took away a four-year-old girl from the lawns of her house and later mauled her to death in a nearby nursery. The little girl’s body was found after two days in a nursery, barely a few hundred metres away from her house, in Ompora locality of Central Kashmir’s Budgam town. The incident left the entire wildlife department of Kashmir shaken.  Four-year-old victim Adha was playing in the lawns of her home when the leopard took her away. Her family was totally unaware of the incident. Some wildlife officials said that the leopard had in…

Ever since she first read about Srinagar’s famous houseboats, Meenakshi, a resident of Pune, had wanted to stay in one. On August 23, she along with her husband landed in Srinagar and drove to the Dal Lake where they had booked a houseboat named Peacock. “After spending a day, I fell ill,” recalls Meenakshi. “I had severe cold, cough and fever. I wasn’t able to move out my bed. The houseboat owner called the boat ambulance and I was taken to the main road first and then to the city hospital. Luckily, I tested negative for COVID. The doctors then…

Three decades of conflict, a total shutdown for months in the state since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 19 2019 and two long periods of lockdown during the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic — all of this together has created a serious mental health crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, and led to a sudden spurt in suicides in the Union Territory in recent times. Suicides in Srinagar in particular have risen at an alarming rate, as young boys, girls, women and even elderly individuals are taking their own lives. The city of 1.2 million has…

When the rest of the country was grappling with the highly virulent COVID second wave in March-April, the Jammu and Kashmir government was busy with preparations to host a mega-Tulip festival at Asia’s largest Tulip garden in Srinagar. Scheduled for six days starting April 3rd, thousands of local residents, tourists and officials thronged the garden on the inaugural day. The event was jointly inaugurated by J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Kerala Governor Arif Muhammad Khan. Prime Minister Narendera Modi was the festival’s brand ambassador. Prior to the official inauguration, Modi had tweeted: “……..The garden will see over 15 lakh…

“At some point of time, we may die of starvation and the sole reason will be this road link.” Muhammad Sultan, a fruit seller who plies his cart at the busy Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar city, could be excused for this dire prediction. But he is one of many whose livelihood has been seriously impacted by the closure of the 300-km Jammu-Srinagar road, the only road link that connects the valley to the rest of India and a lifeline for over 6.5 million people living in the Valley. “There was no supply of fresh fruit in the…