Birds return to find peace

By Sheikh Mushtaq - New Zealand Herald - Auckland, New Zealand

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Tens of thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in the 17-year insurgency in Indian-ruled Kashmir. But a recent fall in the separatist fighting has led to the return of an unfamiliar sound.

The honking of wild geese and the cackle of mallards have returned to Kashmir, with migratory birds back in the Himalayan region.

Wildlife officials say more than 1.5 million migratory birds, and at least 19 different species, flew down to Kashmir's renewed wetlands and swamps this winter from Siberia, central Asia and northern Europe.

That is a record since the insurgency broke out against Indian rule in 1989, they say, and many times higher than the number of visitors at the peak of violence in the 1990s, when the first survey was conducted.

For years lakes gathered silt and weeds, with officials either too scared to venture out to maintain them or simply not interested. Militants used to hide in the wetlands or pass through, while security forces would patrol there.

But with violence falling since India and Pakistan began a peace process in 2004 over the disputed territory, the lakes and wetlands have been cleaned and people kept away.
"The insurgency brought lawlessness, all the trouble along with it, even to these poor birds," said Abdul Rauf Zargar, the wildlife warden of Kashmir's wetlands, pointing to a gaggle of geese in Hokersar lake, near Kashmir's main city, Srinagar.

"Things have changed now completely. With peace returning, we are paying a lot of attention to regain the lost glory of these wetlands."
Flocks of greylag geese, coots and pintails had been seen in the Kashmir valley this winter, Zargar said.

At the height of winter, wildlife workers break thick ice and throw paddy for hungry birds.

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[Picture: A Kashmiri boy prays at the shrine of Muslim Sufi Saint Khawaja Naqashband. Photo Reuters]