Kashmir’s Lifeline Canal Faces Crisis as Winter Nears

Srinagar- In a small office at the Rural Development Department in Srinagar, a delegation from the Jammu & Kashmir Climate Action Group and Alamdar Welfare Society Monday made a simple plea: save the waterway that feeds their fields before it’s too late.

Led by Dr. Raja Muzaffar Bhat, Abdul Rashid Baba, and Abdul Rashid Wagay, the group met Director Rural Development Department, Shabir Hussain Bhat, to raise concerns about the Kralpur Kul, a 13-kilometer-long irrigation canal that winds through the Chadoora area of central Kashmir.

Once a vital source of water for more than 7,000 kanals of agricultural land, the canal now lies clogged with silt, muck, and solid waste.

“The Kralpur Kul needs urgent desilting from Wathoora Sheikhpora to Mochwa,” Dr. Muzaffar said after the meeting. “Some