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Prayers of Peace

in Kashmir

Govt highlights Kashmir normalcy by allowing
prayers at Grand Mosque, reports riyaz wani

n December 18, J&K Government reopened
Srinagar’s Grand Mosque for prayers first time
since the nullification on August 5 of Article 370 But not so on last Friday.
which granted the state turned union territory a But this did allow the government to symbolically project to
O semi-autonomous status within Indian Union. the country that Kashmir is normal. The visuals of the peace-
The prayers at the historic mosque have passed peacefully ful prayers at one of Kashmir’s prominent places of worship
since. There were no protests even during large congregation became a major news in the local and international media.
on Friday. And that too at a time, when scenes of furious protests are
This may also be because the prayers have been attended by ongoing across the country against the newly enacted Citizen-
a small number of worshippers, a significant number of them ship Amendment Act.
elderly people. This was the situation on Friday also, when the Government has a reason to be happy. Grand Mosque is the
gathering comprised of less than ten rows. On normal Fridays traditional turf of the powerful Mirwaiz family where the suc-
when Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq delivers a cessive Mirwaizs (chief preachers of Kashmir) — the current
sermon there, not only is the expansive hall filled to the stand- Mirwaiz is the fourteenth in the line — have been delivering
ing room capacity, even the large open space outside is occu- Friday sermons and leading the prayers on the day.
pied by worshippers. People from all over Srinagar and also Besides, the mosque has also served as a political platform,
from the nearby villages travel to the mosque to be part of the more so in the past three decades. The mosque’s location in the
massive congregation and chiefly to hear sermon of Mirwaiz. heart of Srinagar city also helps as it gives the Mirwaiz family

Protecting the Dal Lake rid it of the encroachment respectively.
The plan called The Dal-Nigeen Lake
Conservation Project was drawn up in
2005.
Turmoil hits efforts to conserve Kashmir’s famous lake, Though conservation effort funded by
the Union Ministry of Environment and
writes riyaz wani Forests has somehow pulled along, it has
largely made a symptomatic difference
ver the past five months years, thanks to a multi-crore rupees to the condition of the lake. And the state
as Kashmir slipped into a clean-up funded by the Government of government financed rehabilitation plan
paralysis following nulli- India. And its resurfacing now points to which includes removing encroachment
fication of Article 370, the the deteriorating health of an already and resettling the people living inside
O state-turned union terri- stressed lake. the Dal hasn’t made much of a headway,
tory’s environment has suffered no less. “Basic problem with the conservation even though the plan dates back to 1987.
One of the hardest hit natural assets has plan for the lake is that it is not based on Around 50,000 people live in 58 hamlets
been Dal Lake, Kashmir’s most famous a scientific understanding. It is adhoc ,” within the lake and around 750 house-
water body, and a magnet for tourists says Shakeel Ramshoo, the professor and boats are moored in its waters.
from far and wide. the head of the department of Earth Sci- As return of the algae makes it clear,
As the daily cleaning of the lake by the ences at Kashmir University. “We have the factors that menace the eco-system
concerned Lakes and Waterways Devel- only been treating the symptoms, not of the lake haven’t gone away and in the
opment Authority came to a halt during addressing the root cause”. absence of cleaning by the concerned
the ongoing strife, a thick and a grow- Dal has been the focus of an intense Lakes and Waterways Development
ing coat of algae spread through a wide recovery effort over the past three dec- Authority during the ongoing strife, re-
swathe of the waterbody and threatened ades. The state and the central govern- turned with a vengeance.
to overwhelm it. ments have followed twin strategies of The basic threat to Dal’s survival,
The algae, environmental experts say, conservation and the rehabilitation to according to environmental experts,
had been largely controlled in recent rejuvenate the lake’s ecosystem and to springs from its altered watershed over

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