A festive snowfall

Today’s snowfall brought joy to all of us. After witnessing a completely dry winter, people were eagerly waiting for something to drench our dry land. When the valleyites, especially in the Srinagar city, the towns, and the non-hilly villages, woke up to a snowy morning, it brought smiles all around. The pictures of elders and kids all alike, enjoying the snowfall is a testimony to the fact that snow is not just a salient feature of the weather in Kashmir, but has a cultural side too. It is part of our folklore, our poetry, and our tradition of living. That is the reason we all came to life when we saw the white in the morning. Besides this, snow was badly needed in terms of our agricultural and climatic necessities. Those who know how important this timely snowfall was can vouch for the fact that without snow Kashmir is a place of grave crises. That is the reason people were in a state of worry experiencing a dry winter. Now that we had a snowfall, it sure is a good news. But beyond this, it is an occasion to ask ourselves some very straight questions. What have we done to safeguard our water resources? Have we been caring towards our environment? Do our policy makers heed the environmental concerns while drafting, and executing, the development projects? And above all, as individuals, do we fulfill our responsibilities towards the natural wealth that God has bestowed us with? The answer to all these question is in negative. While we celebrate this snowfall, we need to do some homework on how we are heading towards disastrous times in terms of our living. Our forests, our waterbodies, our agricultural lands, and our orchids ensure that we have an environmentally safe, and economically stable life. But there is hardly anything harmful that we haven’t inflicted on all these. We are a real thankless people.We are our own enemies. This snowfall should serve as a reminder to all of us that a dry Kashmir is a scary, yet real, scenario.