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Climate change in mountain valleys in Pakistan

13.09.2016

Sardari, Helmat and Taobat are the last three villages in the upper Neelum Valley in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan known for their pristine, moist temperate forests and alpine pastures. In an interview on 24 August 2016 about the impacts of climate change in the valley, Abdul Rehman, a teacher at Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Sardari, a village with 1 400 households, and Muhammad Siddiq Shakir,village headman (Numbardar), recalled that Sardari would get 16-17 feet of snow when they were children. Due to climate change, that amount has now decreased by 50 percent. Bashir Ahmed Wani, the Inspector General of Forests at the Ministry of Environment of Pakistan describes how changes in the climate in Neelum Valley have led to cultural, agricultural and biological changes.

Years ago when there was a death in the village during a heavy snowfall, villagers would first remove the snow and then use a ladder to go down and put the dead body in the grave. Now the timing of the snowfall has become irregular. Usually the first snowfall is in November, but sometimes it occurs as early as September. The duration of snow season has now extended to February or March.

Previously people in the valley would cultivate trumba (Fagopyrum tataricum) as a staple crop, using its seeds to make Chappati bread, because maize cultivation at that time did not produce high yields due to cold climate. Now that Neelum Valley is not as cold, cultivation of traditional trumba has almost stopped and people are cultivating a single crop of maize to get fodder for their livestock during winter. Trumba, however, is rich in nutrients and a tonic for livestock during winter.

The cultivation of a local variety of amaranth (Amaranthus viridis) called Gunhar has become rare. It used to growalong the borders of cornfields. This plant was good fodder for livestock, and its roasted seeds mixed with sugar syrup were used to make sweet balls for children in early times. The tender leaves could be consumed as a vegetable.
Guraiz Valley is known for its quality potatoes, but as yet the people there have not shifted to this crop in a big way. Locals used to harvest many local wild vegetables from the forest, such as wapalhak, sonchal (Malva neglecta), hund (Taraxacum officinale) and guchi (Morchella esculenta), but they have also become very rare. Wild honey used to be abundant in the valley and liked by the black bears, but it has also become extremely rare.

About 50 years ago, people would need and store lot of warm clothing for winter, but today the severity of the climate in winter is not that harsh. The rich source of medicinal plants in the valley is depleting due to unregulated collection and harvesting practices. Two important tree species of the Neelum Valley, the Yew Tree (Taxus baccata) and the Burmi/Bhojpatar (Betula utilis) are fast disappearing from the valley. Wild walnut trees (Khori) are becoming threatened for the extraction of their root bark for making toothpaste and wood for expensive furniture. Sassaurea lappa (Kuth), a medicinal plant that used to be commercially harvested in Neelum Valley, no longer grows on private lands because it is now listed as an endangered species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and is banned from the market.

Many family guesthouses are also spiraling in the valley, and if these businesses go unregulated, it will lead to the pollution of the fresh water resources in the valley. People say that forests and associated rich biodiversity in the valley can be saved if cheap hydropower energy is provided to people for cooking and heating purpose. The use of liquid petroleum gas will also help to reduce dependency on forests.

News and photo by Bashir Ahmed Wani

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