Hot September

Srinagar city recently recorded the hottest day in the month of September in over 120 odd years. This is a phenomenal change in weather pattern, agriculturalists and orchardists across the Kashmir valley should be particularly concerned with this development. Viewed as one of the offshoots of global warming change in weather patterns either side of the scale can lead to disastrous consequences, especially in economies like Kashmir where agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. Hot and humid weather can impact the yield of apple crop which is about to be harvested across the valley. Or lead to early ripening of the yield where it was established that the yield would be harvested in a phased manner. This can hugely impact the pricing metrics and the visuals of the last year are still fresh in our minds when a good part of the produce lay rotting away in orchards. Due to our unsatiated greed, we are removing forest cover day by day and the consequences of this deforestation is hitting us back left, right and centre. If our September looks like June or July it is an indicator that a lot of things are not in perfect harmony with nature. Nature is getting stifled due to our unplanned development and expansion. Srinagar city is growing horizontally and the population of villages is also growing. Slowly yet steadily people are forced to knock on the border of forests and many of us have already started building our homes here – an ideal recipe for disaster. Weather variations are an outcome of our greed, uncontrollable and unsatiated greed. We need to do the overhaul changes and not just a few changes on the periphery. We hope that after a few days, weather changes for good.