By Dr. Ashraf Zainabi

I remember my grandfather standing by the brook for ablution, careful not to spit the rinse water back into the stream. Even while refilling his hukka, he would step away from the water to empty the residue elsewhere. He wasn’t a man of degrees, but he carried a rare wisdom—an unspoken reverence for the land and its lifelines. That consciousness, that instinctive respect for nature, was in his blood.

Today, I look around and wonder: where did it all go?

We seem to have lost something elemental. It’s not just the rivers or lakes that are choking, it’s our moral fibre. Once considered paradise, Kashmir is now comfortably coexisting with garbage on the streets, plastic in the rivers, and sewage gas in the air. Filth has become ordinary. Unnoticed. Unchallenged.

The River Jhelum, the artery that runs through the Valley, is dying silently. From Anantnag to Uri, untreated sewage, plastic, pesticides, even animal carcasses are dumped straight into its waters. We all know it. Few seem to care.........

© Kashmir Observer