SRINAGAR, JAN 04: With Kashmir reeling under intense cold, the day-to-day life of the local population in Dal Lake remains affected due to the freezing of the lake.
Dal Lake in Srinagar has transformed into a winter wonder, drawing global tourists. As temperatures in the Kashmir Valley have dropped significantly recently, a section of the lake has frozen, posing challenges for residents who now find it hard to break through the ice to reach the shore, especially in the morning hours.
Mohammad Yusuf, a shikara owner has had to stay home for around a week without rowing his boat out at the Dal Lake.
“The ice is more than an inch thick. I preferred to stay at home for five days. It is not possible to row the shikara. Due to the frozen lake, we are not able to row them in the shikaras, disappointing many of the tourists,” he said.
Like Yusuf, more than 40,000 people depend on Dal Lake for sustenance, including Shikara owners, houseboat owners, vegetable growers, traders dealing with handicrafts, and fisherfolk. Tourism, agriculture, and fishing form the backbone of the economy emerging from the lake.
And a frozen lake means loss of daily income for hundreds of these local people.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of 40 days of ‘chillai-kalan’, the harshest period of winter, which begins on December 21 and ends on January 31.
The freeze has reduced tourist activity and therefore made life difficult for those who depend on it for a livelihood.
“It took me more than 90 minutes to break the ice and then reach the market,” Javid Ahmad, a local said. He said that to traverse a distance of a kilometre that would normally take him 15 minutes by Shikara, took him 90 minutes.
“Not only has our livelihood been hit, even buying our basic essentials has become a struggle,” he said, who deals in Kashmiri handicrafts.
The vegetable vendors who sell their produce at the floating market early in the mornings on the lake are also hard hit. “There used to be more than 300 people selling vegetables at this market each day. But as the lake is frozen, only a small percentage from nearby areas are able to reach here and do business,” said Farooq Dar, a vegetable grower.
He said it was not worth the effort of spending hours in the mornings breaking the ice. “We instead sell vegetables at low prices to buyers who visit our homes in the afternoon,” he added. Vegetables including tomatoes, carrots, turnips and Nadru (Lotus stem) traded in this floating market are supplied to Srinagar and many towns across the Kashmir valley.
