Kashmir Weed

Subject – Environment

Context – A Kashmir spring is protected by a local festival

Concept –

Panzath Nag in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district supplies water for a trout fish hatchery and drinking and irrigation to a number of villages downstream.
- Derived from ‘Paanch Hath’ — Kashmiri numeral for five hundred — the spring is said to have been once a source to as many smaller ones.
Hundreds of men and children from the villages go fishing in the spring once a year as part of their tradition on Rohan Posh, a local festival.
- Rohan Posh (flowering the souls) is the traditional annual fruit blossom festival specific to the region.
The collective activity rids the spring of silt and weeds and restores its water level for the rest of the year.
The spring has a mythological relevance; the cleaning tradition has been in existence since time immemorial.
The proliferation of weeds in Kashmir valley is a major challenge, having led to the deterioration of water bodies, especially the world-famous Dal Lake in the capital city of Srinagar, leading to biodiversity loss and pollution.
Panzath spring has a mythological relevance, finding a mention in Nilamata Purana and Rajatarangini, the legendary chronicle of Kashmir by Kalhana, the 12th-century contested Kashmiri historian.
- He calls it Naga of Pancahasta, a ‘pure’ spot where the river Vitasta — popularly known as Jhelum — was “brought to light a second time” by sage Kashyapa’s prayer after it had disappeared from fear of “defilement by the touch of sinful men.”