Dry Kashmir prays for rains

Dry Kashmir prays for rains
MUFTI ISLAH

SRINAGAR, JAN 14: A dry Kashmir is now seeking divine help. Three barren winters have forced the people to plead to local Imans to perform Nimaz-e-Istisqa, special prayers to end the prevailing drought-like conditions.

Only today, special prayers were held at the sprawling Idgah adjacent to Srinagar's huge cemetary. Former Hurriyat Conference chairman and important religious leader Moulvi Omar Farooq participated in the namaz and later addressed the gathering.

Jama Masjid Imam Syed Ahmad Syed led the special prayers offered by more than 10,000 people, including a sizeable number of women, for an end to the dry winters.

The idea of offering the prayers was mooted by Muhammad Noorani Naqashbandi, the Imam Masjid-e-Nooh, Nai Sarak. During one of his addresses, he had urged all Imams across the Valley to hold prayers in their areas and sought massive people's participation to get divine blessings. Noorani had even asked people to introspect on their deeds and atone for their sins so that the ongoing dry spell ends.

In Pulwama last week, the local Muslim Auqaf Trust (MAT) office made an announcement that people should arrive at the town's main mosque to hold the special prayers. The MAT had issued warnings to shopkeepers and threatended to impose fines if they did not comply with its orders.

The climate in Kashmir for the past three winters is in direct contrast to earlier years when people used to hold susras (public kitchens to feed hundreds) to pray for an end to the prolonged rains.

Given the present dry spell the Valley is reeling in, especially in the Chili-e-Kalan, a 40-day harsh wintery period beginning from December 20, Weathermen here are bewildered at the climatic ``turnabout'' that has engulfed Kashmir, especially in Chili-e-Kalan, where it hasn't rained for the past 40 days.

``Where are those winters when the Dal lake would freeze for weeks together or snowflakes would cover the hills and meadows of the Valley or giant icicles would form on the rooftops in Srinagar and hill resorts. We are losing a history,'' rued Geography Professor, adding that the prolonged dryness has been telling upon the water bodies which are shrinking everyday.

Even the lifeline of Kashmir, the Jhelum river, is drying up gradually. Many brookes and cascades have vanished. Pebbles have replaced the course of many streams and rivulets. Adverse dry conditions has sounded the death-knell of the farming community, many of whom have been forced to sow maize instead of rice.

B.P. Yadav, director, Meterological office, told The Indian Express thatthey were surprised about the present weather conditions. He said the lastthree years have seen less precipitation because of the fluctuations in the western disturbances that orginate from the Caspian Sea. ``For receiving good amount of precipitation, it is endemic that five systems should be caused as against the poor two we are getting during last three years,'' he said, debunking the notion that deforestation and shrinking of water bodies is responsible for the dry spell.

``Daffodils are flowering two months prior to schedule. The mercury is behaving abnormally and has registered six deg Celsius rise over the normal 5-6 degree Celsius in January,'' said T.N. Jyotshi, assistant metrologist at the Srinagar office.