On the Brink?
A Report on Climate Change and its Impact in Kashmir
Information from eight districts for this study was collected between October 2006 and July 2007 through interviews with 571 individuals by ActionAid’s 91 local team members, who were also supported in a few areas by nine interns from Kashmir University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; Delhi School of Social Work; Aligarh Muslim University and McGill University, Canada in 61 villages of the districts of Anantnag (Islamabad), Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Ganderbal, Srinagar, Budgam, Kupwara, Bandipora and Baramulla. The issues that have been looked into in this study are the change patterns in water availability, crop cultivation, glacier size, snowfall, rainfall, floods and the impact of all these on the livelihoods of people living in Kashmir. The kind of possible future scenarios quoted in the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), based on the changes occurring in the Himalayan mountain regions, also serve to reinforce the findings in this study.
