Without proper reseeding and forest management, Kashmir has little chance of restoring its natural woods
City masjids consume 40,000 quintals of fire wood
Rising Kashmir News
Srinagar: To keep worshippers warm, hamam’s at the city masjids consume more than 40,000 quintals of fire wood every winter, a practice forest officials say has to be changed in future keeping in view exhaustion of required wood and forest depletion.
“Some has to be used as an alternative. The practice of using conifers as fuel must end,” Range officer at the Timber Transport Range (TTR) Parimpora, Mohammad Latief Bhat said.
The Urban Forestry Department (UFD) is keeping up with its tradition of supplying firewood to the masjids and other religious institutions at subsidised rates and this year too it has supplied 2500 quintals of the firewood to 707 masjids.
And despite total number of masjids registered with the department being 1142, officials say the number is increasing every year putting more pressure on the department for fuel supplies.
Bhat said, “Number of masjids is going up every year and with extraction of firewood from forests proving to be a costly affair the religious places will have to procure additional firewood from the open market.”
The forest department during the lumbering process sorts out the rotten and decaying conifers that are dumped later at the TTR Parimpora. From there it is passed on to the city masjids, cemeteries, shamshaans and churches.
This year price for a quintal of firewood is 130 rupees with the private transporters charging 30 rupees a quintal for transportation.
Officials of the forest department suggest the wood could be used in the wood-based industry as an alternative keeping in view the depletion of forests.
“With the help of advancement in timber technology,” the range officer said, “the rotten and discarded wood can be utilised in wood-based industry where it can be turned into more useful products instead of burning in hamam’s.”
The official also said, “Burning of conifers firewood—a major component of what is supplied to the masjids also adds to pollution given the high amount of oil it harbours which on burning produces a high particulate matter in the shape of soot.”
To sustain with the firewood requirements, Bhat said that there should be intense plantations of fire wood tree species.
“It is the only way we can actually cope up with the issue,” he added.
LETTER FROM KASHMIR VALLEY: REDUCING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF WAZWAN
City masjids consume 40,000 quintals of fire wood
Rising Kashmir News
Srinagar: To keep worshippers warm, hamam’s at the city masjids consume more than 40,000 quintals of fire wood every winter, a practice forest officials say has to be changed in future keeping in view exhaustion of required wood and forest depletion.
“Some has to be used as an alternative. The practice of using conifers as fuel must end,” Range officer at the Timber Transport Range (TTR) Parimpora, Mohammad Latief Bhat said.
The Urban Forestry Department (UFD) is keeping up with its tradition of supplying firewood to the masjids and other religious institutions at subsidised rates and this year too it has supplied 2500 quintals of the firewood to 707 masjids.
And despite total number of masjids registered with the department being 1142, officials say the number is increasing every year putting more pressure on the department for fuel supplies.
Bhat said, “Number of masjids is going up every year and with extraction of firewood from forests proving to be a costly affair the religious places will have to procure additional firewood from the open market.”
The forest department during the lumbering process sorts out the rotten and decaying conifers that are dumped later at the TTR Parimpora. From there it is passed on to the city masjids, cemeteries, shamshaans and churches.
This year price for a quintal of firewood is 130 rupees with the private transporters charging 30 rupees a quintal for transportation.
Officials of the forest department suggest the wood could be used in the wood-based industry as an alternative keeping in view the depletion of forests.
“With the help of advancement in timber technology,” the range officer said, “the rotten and discarded wood can be utilised in wood-based industry where it can be turned into more useful products instead of burning in hamam’s.”
The official also said, “Burning of conifers firewood—a major component of what is supplied to the masjids also adds to pollution given the high amount of oil it harbours which on burning produces a high particulate matter in the shape of soot.”
To sustain with the firewood requirements, Bhat said that there should be intense plantations of fire wood tree species.
“It is the only way we can actually cope up with the issue,” he added.
LETTER FROM KASHMIR VALLEY: REDUCING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF WAZWAN
Aid group tries to reduce carbon footprint of weddings in Kashmir Valley
By Emily Wax (Washington Post)
Srinagar: During every wedding season in the Kashmir Valley, love is in the air -- along with a thick cloud of grey smoke from thousands of cooking fires as platoons of wedding chefs, or wazas, slow-cook lamb and chicken over wood fires, sometimes for days.
Epic wedding banquets, each with dozens of courses that include succulent lamb kebabs, mutton meatballs and chicken curries, are an engine of Kashmiri culture. But they are also an environmental hazard: About 15,000 trees a day are cut down for these nuptial feasts, say researchers from Mercy Corps, an international aid group.
So now, in its latest attempt to find creative ways to fight climate change, the group is trying to reduce the carbon footprint of Kashmiri weddings.
"The Big Fat Kashmiri Wedding is going green," said Usmaan Ahmad, who is overseeing program development for Mercy Corps in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. "If wazas go green, it's the perfect way to demonstrate the substitution of cleaner energy not just for weddings but for heating households, too."
As world leaders at the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen struggle to hash out a plan for cutting emissions on a global scale, leaders in ecologically fragile regions such as Kashmir are coming up with small-scale solutions to shrink their carbon footprint and stave off or survive the effects of global warming, largely thought to be caused by greenhouse gases.
In Bangladesh, for instance, aid groups are building "floating villages," with schools and health clinics on boats, and offering special classes to help educate farmers and women about building shelters to survive flooding expected to be caused by warming.
Kenya built its first wind farm atop the Ngong Hills. It harnesses the breezes that sweep through the Rift Valley to generate clean power for the energy-starved East African nation.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir is home to glaciers that provide fresh water for one-fifth of the world's population. But scientists and United Nations researchers say the glaciers are shrinking faster than expected and, at the current rate, could disappear within 30 years.
"If we don't stop the glaciers from disappearing, this could become another potential for conflict over water supply," said Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, a glaciologist at the University of Kashmir. "If we can get weddings to go green, that means we are motivating people on the ground. That is a powerful thing."
Mercy Corps workers are persuading wazas to cook their wedding delicacies with something they had never thought possible: weeds from Dal Lake and other household waste such as potato and fruit peels that are mixed with clay, heated, then crunched into cleaner-burning briquettes.
The project is part of grass-roots efforts here to fight global warming in places that are most affected by the phenomenon.
In the nearby region of Ladakh, retired civil engineer Chewang Norphel, known as "Glacier Man," came up with a novel way to artificially create glaciers.
He builds small stone walls to slow the downhill flow of glacier runoff, causing it to freeze faster during the winter months.
"Norphel is a real, live example of acting locally and not just waiting to see what happens on the international level," said Nawang Rigzin Jora, minister for tourism and culture in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
To bring attention to the plight of those suffering most from the adverse effects of climate change, Mercy Corps and the state's Tourism Ministry organized the first-ever rock concert in Srinagar, to coincide with the opening of the Copenhagen talks. U.S. singer-songwriter Terra Naomi teamed up with Kashmiri crooner Waheed Jeelani for a local rendition of her hit single "Say It's Possible," inspired by the award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
In Kashmir, social activists fear that the valley's natural beauty -- its apple orchards, stream-laced pine forests and lakes filled with pink lotus flowers -- is quickly disappearing.
Many scientists say man-made greenhouse gases are causing weather patterns to become more extreme.
In Kashmir, subtle changes in temperature have affected the region's vegetation. For centuries, Kashmiri folklore and botanical records show that the valley's narcissus flower usually blooms in April and May. But in recent years Kashmiri farmers and horticulturalists say the flower is blooming as early as January.
"That shows just how much nature's calendar is in disarray," said Ahmad of Mercy Corps.
Standing over steaming caldrons, the wazas at a local kitchen said they were skeptical of cooking their beloved dishes over biomass fuel briquettes made from weeds and food scraps.
"It might change the taste," said Fayaz Ahmed, 30.
"We've been cooking this way for over a hundred years, but if people want their wedding dishes cooked in a new way, we can try it," he said, ladling a massive mutton meatball out of a steaming pot.
"We will see what the lamb tastes like."
Srinagar: During every wedding season in the Kashmir Valley, love is in the air -- along with a thick cloud of grey smoke from thousands of cooking fires as platoons of wedding chefs, or wazas, slow-cook lamb and chicken over wood fires, sometimes for days.
Epic wedding banquets, each with dozens of courses that include succulent lamb kebabs, mutton meatballs and chicken curries, are an engine of Kashmiri culture. But they are also an environmental hazard: About 15,000 trees a day are cut down for these nuptial feasts, say researchers from Mercy Corps, an international aid group.
So now, in its latest attempt to find creative ways to fight climate change, the group is trying to reduce the carbon footprint of Kashmiri weddings.
"The Big Fat Kashmiri Wedding is going green," said Usmaan Ahmad, who is overseeing program development for Mercy Corps in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. "If wazas go green, it's the perfect way to demonstrate the substitution of cleaner energy not just for weddings but for heating households, too."
As world leaders at the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen struggle to hash out a plan for cutting emissions on a global scale, leaders in ecologically fragile regions such as Kashmir are coming up with small-scale solutions to shrink their carbon footprint and stave off or survive the effects of global warming, largely thought to be caused by greenhouse gases.
In Bangladesh, for instance, aid groups are building "floating villages," with schools and health clinics on boats, and offering special classes to help educate farmers and women about building shelters to survive flooding expected to be caused by warming.
Kenya built its first wind farm atop the Ngong Hills. It harnesses the breezes that sweep through the Rift Valley to generate clean power for the energy-starved East African nation.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir is home to glaciers that provide fresh water for one-fifth of the world's population. But scientists and United Nations researchers say the glaciers are shrinking faster than expected and, at the current rate, could disappear within 30 years.
"If we don't stop the glaciers from disappearing, this could become another potential for conflict over water supply," said Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, a glaciologist at the University of Kashmir. "If we can get weddings to go green, that means we are motivating people on the ground. That is a powerful thing."
Mercy Corps workers are persuading wazas to cook their wedding delicacies with something they had never thought possible: weeds from Dal Lake and other household waste such as potato and fruit peels that are mixed with clay, heated, then crunched into cleaner-burning briquettes.
The project is part of grass-roots efforts here to fight global warming in places that are most affected by the phenomenon.
In the nearby region of Ladakh, retired civil engineer Chewang Norphel, known as "Glacier Man," came up with a novel way to artificially create glaciers.
He builds small stone walls to slow the downhill flow of glacier runoff, causing it to freeze faster during the winter months.
"Norphel is a real, live example of acting locally and not just waiting to see what happens on the international level," said Nawang Rigzin Jora, minister for tourism and culture in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
To bring attention to the plight of those suffering most from the adverse effects of climate change, Mercy Corps and the state's Tourism Ministry organized the first-ever rock concert in Srinagar, to coincide with the opening of the Copenhagen talks. U.S. singer-songwriter Terra Naomi teamed up with Kashmiri crooner Waheed Jeelani for a local rendition of her hit single "Say It's Possible," inspired by the award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
In Kashmir, social activists fear that the valley's natural beauty -- its apple orchards, stream-laced pine forests and lakes filled with pink lotus flowers -- is quickly disappearing.
Many scientists say man-made greenhouse gases are causing weather patterns to become more extreme.
In Kashmir, subtle changes in temperature have affected the region's vegetation. For centuries, Kashmiri folklore and botanical records show that the valley's narcissus flower usually blooms in April and May. But in recent years Kashmiri farmers and horticulturalists say the flower is blooming as early as January.
"That shows just how much nature's calendar is in disarray," said Ahmad of Mercy Corps.
Standing over steaming caldrons, the wazas at a local kitchen said they were skeptical of cooking their beloved dishes over biomass fuel briquettes made from weeds and food scraps.
"It might change the taste," said Fayaz Ahmed, 30.
"We've been cooking this way for over a hundred years, but if people want their wedding dishes cooked in a new way, we can try it," he said, ladling a massive mutton meatball out of a steaming pot.
"We will see what the lamb tastes like."
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