Daishwar Hameed The Lidder river of Pahalgam rushes by as it always has, fast and clear, yet something about it unsettles the people who live by its banks. For Jumma Khan, a 71-year-old shepherd from Aru, the river is no longer the same. He has spent most of his life under the shade of tall pine trees in these hills, but today, he sits under an almost bare sky. “The trees fell one by one,” he says, pointing at the slopes where only a few patches of green remain. “Nobody came to plant new ones. It feels like the mountains themselves have changed. They were once our guardians, but now they no longer welcome us.” Jumma remembers a time when the Lidder was always calm despite its fast current. But on September 2, 2025, at Batkot, the river flowed above the danger mark. “This river never swe...

Joy spread in Srinagar on Wednesday afternoon as patches of sunshine broke through the clouds, with many residents taking to social media to share relief at a pause in the downpour. Yet beneath the calm skies, experts warned that the city’s flood fate was being written far away in south Kashmir, where swollen rivers and tributaries continued to swell dangerously after relentless rain. The situation grew more alarming by afternoon as water levels in the Jhelum and its tributaries surged sharply, with some already flowing above danger marks. Authorities and locals in south Kashmir reported inundations, damaged bridges, and livestock being moved to safety, amid fears of worsening conditions with another spell of rain forecast in the next 4–8 hours. According to the Irrigation and Flood ...