Waiting for cure from sky: Kashmir looks up

Srinagar, Dec 19: In Kashmir, there is an old adage that snowfall is nature’s remedy, a quiet healer believed to end the seasonal surge of coughs and chest ailments.

This winter, that inherited wisdom has found a new resonance.

As Kashmir chokes under heavy smog, people now look skyward with a different urgency, awaiting snow and rain not just for tradition but for relief.

With rain forecast for Saturday, hope hangs heavy, carrying the promise that nature may once again intervene.

Srinagar woke up to an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 303 on Friday (recorded for Raj Bagh Station), indicating that the pollution was so severe that the air the residents were breathing was “very poor”.

At the AQI monitoring station Pampore, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) website showed that the AQI was 203, ‘poor’ category when this report was filed at 8 pm on Friday.

In the morning, it was a little worse and stood at 219.

Raj Bagh station recorded an improvement  at 183 AQI, yet still moderately polluted.

Khanmoh station recorded an AQI of 204 around the same time.

Although AQI in this range is not the norm here, persistently polluted air this winter has been a cause for exacerbated asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and many other respiratory ailments.

People have been complaining of coughs and colds among adults and children.

Pollution has been found to be strongly linked to heart ailments and more chronic diseases.

It has also been found to be associated with birth defects.

The weather forecast by the Meteorological Department (MeT) has good news for Kashmir: rains will help the particulate matter, the major pollutants in air, to settle down.

Snowfall is expected to bring relief to the higher reaches.

Director MeT Centre Srinagar, Mukhtar Ahmad, said that the air quality is expected to bring about respite in air pollution.

“There is a good chance of improvement in air quality with precipitation expected across Kashmir,” he said.

Ahmad said Srinagar and other parts of central Kashmir may not record snowfall, yet rainfall was a strong possibility.

Higher reaches, especially in north Kashmir, may have snowfall around 22 December, he said.

Kashmiris have long looked skywards in winters, praying for snowfall to end the onslaught of respiratory ailments.

The age-old adage, ‘cough and cold will end when it snows,’ has a scientific explanation now.

The heavy smog and layers of particulate matter are caused by the dry spell and winter chill in the geographical bowl of Kashmir.

This year, since October, Kashmir has recorded a precipitation deficit of over 80 percent.

The long dry spell, temperature inversion, sluggish winds, and fall in temperatures, coupled with an increase in smoke and carbon particles coming from heating systems and horticulture and agriculture waste burning, has aggravated the problem for residents.