Kashmiri filmmakers urge people to save valley from climate change

IANS

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Kashmir makes headlines in terrorism and insurgency but a bunch of young filmmakers from the region has appealed to people through short films to save the beauty and blossoms of the valley from ravages of climate change.

At least two films screened at the recently concluded seventh National Science Film Festival here, have climate change in Kashmir as central themes.

Jalal-Ud Din Baba's "Global Warning: Kashmir Chapter" narrates the story of three orchard owners who are "victims" of climate change.

Fluctuations in season, late winters and uneven snowfall completely or partially destroyed their orchards and their business, Baba said.

"The September 2014 flood is a furious warning of nature against global warming. We appeal to the people to save beauty and blossoms of Kashmir," said Baba who bagged a prize at the fest.

In "Climate Change Adaptation in Lidder Valley", documentary filmmaker Tariq Abdullah shows how the people in the Lidder Valley adapted to the climatic changes.

It is based on research of post-graduate students from the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Kashmir.

It takes off from the fact that Kashmir lost 18 per cent of Kolahoi glacier and irrigation in Lidder Valley during the last 40 years.

After extensive research, the movie makers found various changes in the Kashmir Himalayan region like regular increase in temperature, recession of glaciers, erratic and scanty precipitation, shrinking wetlands and changes in species composition.

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