Climate Change Concerns Return Due To Dry Spell In Kashmir

The saffron crop production at the farm of Muhammad Ashraf in Pampore town of Kashmir has been the lowest this year since he began cultivation years back.

A continuous dry spell due to the lack of rainfall reduced his saffron yield to only half-a-kilo compared to 10 to 15 kgs per year.

“The rain should have come a month before the harvesting season, which runs from mid-October to the last week of November. It was a total drought-like situation this year due to which the yield of the crop was the lowest since we began cultivating the land years back,” says 52-year-old Ashraf.

“We have been cultivating saffron on 15 kanals of land for several years, but eking out a living from the farming is difficult now. My father has been cultivating the land, and then the responsibility fell on me. The production has been declining, but this was the worst year. Last year we harvested over one and a half kgs of crop,” he says.

The dry spell has not only reduced the production of saffron in the Kashmir, but there are also fears among the farmers that it would impact the other crops. In the last two months, across Jammu and Kashmir, rainfall was deficient by over 33 per cent, with some districts hardest hit.

In Anantnag, Budgam, Bandipora, Baramulla, Ganderbal, Kulgam and Kupwara and Srinagar, the rainfall recorded from October 1 to December 17 this year was 62, 23.1, 27.5, 28.3, 37, 53.6, 57 mm and 38.6, which was deficient by 32 per cent, 64, 70, 71, 60, 61, 51 and 55 per cent, respectively.

“If the dry spell persists like this, then it will impact the production of the apple crop in the next year’s harvesting season too,” says Nazir Ahmad Sher, 55, who harvests over 1,500 cartons of apples each year from his orchard in the Drubgam area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama.

“We have grown high-density varieties of apple crop apart from the traditional varieties, and a decent spell of rainfall is important to prevent damage to the trees. Last year, the temperature was very high in the month of June, and we had to depend on external water sources to irrigate our fields. And if the drought-like situation continues after the winter months as well, then it will have a major impact on the produce,” he says.

Kashmir has been experiencing erratic weather patterns with the temperatures touching record levels in the month of June last year, while extreme weather phenomena of cloudbursts have become common.

Excessive rainfall also led to floods last year in September, causing heavy damage to crops. Experts have attributed this to the climate change patterns in Kashmir, with vehicular pollution and felling of tree cover seen to be key reasons responsible for this.

Kashmir University’s Head of the Department of Geography and Disaster Management, Professor Pervez Ahmad, says that the “physiographic and topo climatic conditions have been responsible for less rainfall in some areas of Kashmir.”

“The physiographic conditions of different areas in Kashmir differ in terms of tree cover and mountain ranges. The physiographic and topo climatic conditions determine the level of rainfall,” he says.

“A good spell of snow will come as a big relief from the current dry weather conditions.”

The dry spell has also hit the tourism flow as well, with the businessmen associated with the tourism trade hoping that a snowfall, particularly in the tourist area of Gulmarg, which is famous for skiing and other winter sports, will attract people from the rest of the country to the region.

Mehboob Mir, secretary general of the Kashmir Hotels and Restaurants Association (KHARA), says that a segment of tourists makes the bookings for travel to Kashmir after snowfall only.

“The tourist footfall is very less and has been impacted by the lack of snow. We generally have people visiting Kashmir during the holiday season in September and October. Winter is also generally a good tourist season in Kashmir. Our numbers have been impacted due to a lack of snow.”

“In the last few years, the hotel industry has seen an upgrade with not only the room inventory increasing here, but accommodations becoming more comfortable due to improved heating arrangements. We are hoping that the tourism will pick up again after the snowfall, particularly to the sites of Sonamarg and Gulmarg,” he says.

However, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has only predicted a moderate to light snowfall and rainfall in most parts of Kashmir on December 21.

Director IMD, Srinagar, Mukhtar Ahmad, says, “The rainfall has been less than the expected normal levels due to the weak Western disturbances. But we are expecting moderate to light rains or snow in the plains of Kashmir, which will end the dry spell.”