GREEN LIVING

SRINAGAR ATTRACTS HORDES OF tourists for its iconic Dal Lake, tree-lined boulevards and Mughal-era gardens resplendent with chinar trees. Now, both the "Lake of Flowers" and chinars are in a fight for survival as pollution from untreated sewage and unsupervised logging threatens their future.

PARADISE LOST?

The Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Committee found that only one out of 11 spots in Dal Lake met the National Green Tribunal's Class-B criteria (fit for outdoor bathing) in June 2024. Meanwhile, the logging of chinar trees to make way for construction projects without thorough environmental checks has worried conservationists. The tree is crucial for maintaining the region's microclimate. Chinars serve as meeting places for communities, provide shade in summer, and offer a habitat for birds. The last Kashmir chinar census (2018), put the number of the trees at 34,606.

THE WINTER FOREST

W HEN THE RESOUNDING buzz of cicadas and crickets fade into the night, there is an irregular but well determined "pitt... patt...

pitt... patt," tender and rhythmic, mildly soporific, a reminder that life is still beating on a winter night. This is the sound of dew falling on the leaves amidst a thick, smoky mist floating in the dark forest Every winter, I long to return to the broadleaf forest of the Himalayan foothills, where myriad trees, each towering above the other, bring comfort from the humdrum of urban life. It's a place to look forward to, where the sun rays streaming through the branches, and the thick canopy of leaves, create a kaleidoscopic light and shadow show on the forest floor. This chiaroscuro is magical, even hypnotic.

The sharp light makes the giant wood spider's web glitter, revealing a hapless fly caught in its fine trap. If one looks closely, one can see the spider hunter busy on a different twig, spinning another trap of exquisite silk.

The silence is broken by laughter, not by my kind but by a flock of white-crested laughing thrushes. Their joy reverberates along the dense corridors only to be picked up by another raucous inmate, the magnificent racket-tailed drongo.