The race to save Kashmir’s iconic chinar trees

Was it pruning or felling?

The alleged chopping of centuries-old chinar trees in Indian-administered Kashmir has sparked outrage, with locals and pictures suggesting they had been reduce down, whereas the federal government insists it was simply routine pruning. The controversy has renewed give attention to the endangered tree and efforts to protect it.

The chinar is an iconic image of the Kashmir valley’s panorama and a serious vacationer draw, particularly in autumn when the timber’ leaves gentle up in fiery hues of flaming purple to a heat auburn.

The timber are native to Central Asia however had been launched to Kashmir centuries in the past by Mughal emperors and princely kings. Over time, they’ve come to occupy an essential place in Kashmiri tradition.

However fast urbanisation, unlawful logging and local weather change are threatening their survival, prompting authorities to take steps to preserve them.

The Jammu and Kashmir authorities has been geotagging chinar timber in an effort to maintain observe of them and their well being. The challenge entails attaching a QR code to every tree with details about its location, age and different bodily traits.

“We’re ‘digitally defending’ chinar timber,” says Syed Tariq, a scientist who’s heading the challenge. He explains that data offered by the QR code may also help locals and vacationers get to identified extra a couple of tree, however it could possibly additionally assist counter issues like unlawful or hasty slicing of them.

The challenge has geotagged about 29,000 chinar timber thus far, with one other 6,000–7,000 nonetheless left to be mapped.

Regardless of its heritage worth, there was no correct depend of those timber, says Mr Syed. Whereas authorities information cite 40,000, he calls the determine debatable however is definite their numbers have declined.

This can be a downside as a result of the tree takes not less than 50 years to achieve maturity. Environmentalists say new plantations are going through challenges like diminishing house. Moreover, chinar timber want a cool local weather to outlive, however the area has been experiencing hotter summers and snowless winters of late.

However on the intense facet, these timber can stay for a whole bunch of years – the oldest chinar tree within the area is believed to be round 700 years outdated. A majority of the timber are not less than a number of centuries outdated and have large trunks and sprawling canopies.

The timber acquired most patronage in the course of the Mughal interval, which stretched from the early 1500s to the mid-1800s. Lots of the timber that exist within the valley had been planted throughout this era, Mr Syed says.

The Mughal kings, who dominated many components of erstwhile India, made Kashmir their summer season getaway attributable to its cool local weather and exquisite surroundings. Additionally they erected “pleasure gardens” – landscaped gardens well-known for his or her symmetry and greenery – for his or her leisure.

The chinar loved pleasure of place in these gardens and the timber had been normally planted alongside water channels to reinforce the fantastic thing about the place. Many of those gardens exist even right this moment.

In line with authorities literature, within the sixteenth Century Mughal emperor Akbar planted round 1,100 timber in a single such pleasure backyard close to the well-known Dal Lake in Srinagar, however about 400 have perished over time attributable to road-widening tasks and ailments brought on by pests.

Emperor Jahangir, Akbar’s son, is claimed to have planted 4 chinar timber on a tiny island in Dal Lake, giving it the title Char Chinar (4 Chinars) – now a serious vacationer draw. Over time, two timber had been misplaced to age and illness, till the federal government changed them with transplanted mature timber in 2022.

Curiously, the chinar is protected below the Jammu and Kashmir Preservation of Specified Timber Act, 1969, which regulates its felling and export and requires official approval even for pruning. The regulation stays in drive regardless of the area losing statehood in 2019.

However environmental activist Raja Muzaffar Bhat says authorities usually exploit authorized loopholes to chop down chinar timber.

“Underneath the garb of pruning, complete timber are felled,” he says, citing a latest alleged felling in Anantnag district that sparked outrage.

“The federal government is geotagging timber on one facet, however slicing them on the opposite,” he says. He provides that whereas authorities take away timber for city tasks, locals additionally fell them illegally.

Chinar timber have sturdy hardwood, supreme for carvings, furnishings and artefacts. Locals additionally use them for firewood and making natural drugs.

Authorities tasks like geotagging are elevating consciousness, says Mr Bhat. He provides that Kashmiris, deeply connected to the chinar as a part of their heritage, now converse out towards its felling or harm.

Final week, many posted pictures of the allegedly chopped timber in Anantnag on X (previously Twitter) whereas opposition leaders demanded that the federal government launch an investigation and take motion towards the culprits.

“The federal government ought to shield the timber in letter and in spirit,” Mr Bhat says.

“As a result of with out chinar, Kashmir will not really feel like dwelling.”