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A Morning Walk in Kashmir: My Daily Rendezvous with the Birds

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A Morning Walk in Kashmir: My Daily Rendezvous with the Birds There’s something magical about waking up before the sun in Kashmir. The air is crisp, the mountains still wear their night caps of mist, and the world feels untouched. I slip out of the house around 5:30 in summer (a little later in winter when it’s too cold to feel my fingers), pull on a pheran or a light jacket, and head towards the boulevards, the old Mughal gardens, or simply along the bund by Dal Lake. What pulls me out every single day isn’t fitness or routine; it’s the birds. Kashmir, tucked in the lap of the Himalayas, is a paradise people usually praise for its lakes and chinar trees, but for me, mornings belong to the winged residents. Here’s my usual roll-call on an ordinary walk between Nishat and Shalimar, or sometimes deeper into the Hariparbat side and Dachigam fringes. 1. The Early Choir – Bulbuls and Sparrows The moment the first pale light touches the poplars, the Red-vented Bulbuls start. Thei...
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The Little Blue Jewel of the Wetlands: My Winter Guest from Siberia

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The Little Blue Jewel of the Wetlands: My Winter Guest from Siberia There’s a small wetland patch just behind the police headquarters in my city, an unlikely oasis sandwiched between a busy road, a row of government buildings, and a parking lot full of white Boleros with red-blue lights. Most people hurry past it without a second glance. I, however, stop almost every winter morning, because that’s when he arrives: a stunning little blue bird that looks like someone dropped a shard of Siberian sky right into our muddy marshes. He is a Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica), one of the most beautiful winter visitors we get in India. And every year, sometime in late October or early November, a few of them leave the vast tundra and taiga of Siberia and northern Russia and fly over 5,000 kilometres to spend the cold months with us. The first time I saw him, I almost couldn’t believe the colour. The male Bluethroat in winter plumage still carries that electric blue throat and chest, edge...
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An Unexpected Conversation with an iOS Parrot in a Kashmir Barber Shop

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An Unexpected Conversation with an iOS Parrot in a Kashmir Barber Shop I swear this is a true story (or at least as true as stories get when you’re sitting in a tiny barber shop in Srinagar and reality starts feeling a little wobbly). It was a crisp October morning. I had been wandering the back lanes of old Srinagar near Hari Parbat, looking for a place to get a quick trim before heading to Dal Lake. Most fancy salons were either closed or too touristy, so I ducked into a narrow shop with a faded red-and-white pole spinning outside. The sign simply read “Ustad Hair Cutting Saloon – Since 1972”. Perfect. Inside, it smelled of talcum powder, coconut oil, and that unmistakable sharp bite of old-school aftershave. Three ancient chairs, one cracked mirror, a small transistor radio playing 90s Bollywood songs, and Ustad ji himself (white beard, thick glasses, and the calm authority of a man who has cut half the city’s hair for five decades). I sat down. The usual ritual began: c...
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The Red Ghosts of Kashmir: Why the Valley Can’t Stop Talking About Its Foxes

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The Red Ghosts of Kashmir: Why the Valley Can’t Stop Talking About Its Foxes If you’ve ever driven on the Srinagar-Leh highway at dusk, you’ve probably seen one: a flash of rust-red fur slipping between the poplars, amber eyes catching your headlights for a split second before vanishing into the orchards. Kashmiris don’t just call them “foxes.” They call them Lal Lohar, the Red Phantom. And almost every village from Gurez to Gulmarg has a story about them that grandparents still swear is true. The Fox Who Stole the Moon In Tangmarg, old men will tell you about the night in 1947 when a fox walked into a marriage party, sat on its haunches beside the bride, and stared at the full moon reflected in a copper plate of sheer chai. When someone tried to shoo it away, the fox spoke (yes, spoke) in a woman’s voice: “Give me one fistful of wazwaan (red cock meat only) and I will return your moon tomorrow.” They laughed, of course. Until the next morning the moon didn’t rise. Three da...
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A Winter Morning in Bed

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A Winter Morning of Kashmir in Bed The world outside is still wrapped in darkness, a deep indigo that hasn’t yet decided to become dawn. I’m buried under layers of blankets, warm and heavy with sleep, when it begins: the first faint chirp. Then another. And another. Soft, deliberate, impossibly bright notes slipping through the frozen air. It’s winter. The kind of cold that makes the windowpanes blush with frost, the kind that turns your breath into little ghosts. By all logic, everything should be silent. The trees are bare, the ground is hard, and most creatures have either flown south or burrowed deep. And yet, here they are—these tiny winter birds—singing like it’s the first day of spring. Their voices are not loud. They don’t need to be. In the stillness of a winter morning, every sound is amplified. Each chirp lands like a drop of water on still glass: clear, pure, startlingly alive. It’s a delicate sound, almost fragile, as if the cold might shatter it. But it doesn’...
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The Untamed Paradise: Exploring the Rich Wildlife of Kashmir

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The Untamed Paradise: Exploring the Rich Wildlife of Kashmir Nestled in the lap of the mighty Himalayas, Kashmir is not just a land of breathtaking landscapes, serene lakes, and snow-capped peaks; it is also one of India’s most precious wildlife sanctuaries. Often called “Paradise on Earth,” the valley and its surrounding highlands harbor an astonishing diversity of flora and fauna, much of which is rare, endangered, and found nowhere else in the world. From the elusive Hangul stag to the majestic Snow Leopard prowling the high altitudes, Kashmir’s wilderness is a living testament to nature’s grandeur. The Crown Jewel: The Kashmir Stag (Hangul) No discussion of Kashmir’s wildlife is complete without mentioning the Hangul, or Kashmir Red Deer (Cervus hanglu). Once widespread across the region, this elegant creature with its magnificent 11–16-point antlers is now critically endangered, with fewer than 250 individuals remaining in the wild. The Dachigam National Park, just 22 ...
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The Fishes of Dal Lake: A Fragile Underwater World Under the Shadow of Shikaras

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The Fishes of Dal Lake: A Fragile Underwater World Under the Shadow of Shikaras Nestled in the heart of Srinagar, Kashmir, Dal Lake is not just a postcard-perfect waterbody ringed by Mughal gardens and houseboats; it is also one of the most important wetland ecosystems in the Kashmir Valley. Beneath the mirrored surface where floating vegetable gardens and lotus blooms dominate the summer landscape, an entire aquatic community quietly thrives, or struggles to. The native fishes of Dal Lake, especially the endemic Schizothorax species, have shaped local cuisine, culture, and livelihoods for centuries. Yet today, these fish face an existential threat, and one of the most visible culprits paddles right above them: the iconic shikara. The Fish That Made Kashmir Famous The star of Dal Lake’s ichthyofauna is undoubtedly the Snowtrout, locally called “Kashir gaad,” belonging to the genus Schizothorax (commonly S. esocinus, S. niger, S. curvifrons, and S. labiatus). These are hands...
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