CASE NUMBER: 365

CASE MNEMONIC: KASHMIR

CASE NAME: Kashmir Deforestation

  I. Identification
1. The Issue

A.    IDENTIFICATION
 
1.  Issue.
 
     Dal Lake, located a mile above sea level in the Himalayan
Mountain range, is one of  many natural sites that have become the
forgotten victims of war and civil strife throughout India and
other troubled countries.  Since India gained independence in 1947
from the British,  and Pakistan was created from eastern Indian
territory, Muslim separatist factions and militants  in the Kashmir
Valley have been waging a civil war.  Their stated goal is to
become either a  purely autonomous region or to be joined with its
Muslim neighbor, Pakistan.  The history of  animosity between the
residents of Kashmir and its Indian government is long and due to
a  variety of reasons.  Of these, the most often expressed by the
Kashmiri muslims is the feeling  that they are being discriminated
against by the Indian Hindu majority.  "The government [and 
military troops in the region] tell us who to vote for, what we can
plant and where we can live.   It is not to the liking of many of
the tradition villagers" (Mohammed 1996).  Dal Lake, and  much of
the surrounding area, has become a battlefield and fallen victim to
the difficulties of  war.  But, not only is the land dying but many
poor, native inhabitants say they can no longer  continue their
traditional way of life let alone survive.  Through massive
deforestation and  pollution the area is just an example of what
can occur without international attention and  governmental
regulation.
 
 2.  Description.
 
     Dal Lake is being overrun by weeds, choked with silt, and
saturated with pollution and  was one of the most scenic lakes on
the Indian subcontinent. It is but one example in which 
governmental officials and other observers say that trees, lakes
and animals rank low on the  priority list in regions such as
Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Somalia, where civil tribal wars 
threaten the existence of humans (Chaudry 1996).  By the time the
war ends, according to  India's top environmentalists, the fabled
lake near the Pakistani border, once a large,  productive body of
water, may be little more than a polluted marsh incapable of
sustain the  local population. (Moore 1994).  Across the
subcontinent, bodies of water are being polluted,  forests
plundered, and wildlife sanctuaries stripped of flora and fauna as
a result of local  militias, struggling natives and government
neglect brought on by the chaos of warfare.  "The  whole system has
broken down," said M.A. Kawosa, conservator of forests for the
Kashmir  Valley, where separatist Muslim militants have been
fighting prominently Hindu Indian  government forces for six years. 
"The lake is dying and our forests have had terrible damage.   It's
as if there's an open treasury and people are looting it" (Moore
1994).  

     The civil war in Kashmir has had a devastating effect on the
Dal Lake ecosystem.  In  many instances, inadequate government
protection has resulted in widespread poaching and  timer cutting
in sanctuaries, parks and reserves.  "I used to be able to hunt,
fist, and survive in  the forests and waterways around Dal Lake,"
said Tariq Mohammed, a former resident of the  Dal Lake area, "but
now I do not even recognize my once beautiful birthplace."
(Mohammed  1996).  
 
     Central to the Dal Lake problem is the semi-legal slashing of
mountainside forests by  the military factions and their opponents. 
The deforestation has created problems of soil  erosion and mud
slides that catch local population by deadly surprise and slowly
change the  shape and chemistry of the lake.  Tariq Mohammed, in an
interview in July 1996, stated that he  had personally know of an
entire family [the Aziz's] that were killed by a flash mud slide
while  out gathering wood and grass in 1995.  While these tragedies
have become more frequent,  there seems to be an inability to
significantly alter the course of the destruction.  Both sides of 
the civil war have become entangled in bureaucratic red-tape or by
military objectives that  supersede civilian programs.
 
 GOVERNMENT CLEANUP AND RELIEF PROGRAMS

     The Indian government has suspended their prewar programs to
control pollution in the  lake citing decreasing funds and a lesser
importance to the projects until the conflict can be  resolved. 
Water treatment and the prevention of mere dumping of refuse into
the waterways  head the lists of governmental pollution programs. 
If the water can be cleansed and remain  pollution free many of the
current problems due to the excess waste dumping can be alleviated. 
 The government was to expand its vegetation removal, by water-type
vegetation "mowers"  and harvesters.  Officials cite the danger of
attempting these measures while a civil war is  occurring nearby. 
There is also the problem of lack of funding for these projects due
to the  budgetary problems India is experiencing as well as the
officially stated need to divert monies  to the war effort
(Burberry 1991).  The government and the United Nations also
express the  need for population control methods to stem the
increasing amount of pollution into the local  waters.  Due to the
belief that a large family is necessary for farming, through
traditional  methods, there has been a population explosion in
recent years.  The annual birth rates for the  area are said to
have increased by over 25 percent in the last 20 years.  Dal Lake
and the  surrounding area, which once registered approximately
2,500 residents, is now figured to  support over 4,000 peoples and
this number is expected to grow significantly in the next  decade
(Moore 1994).
 
     Other government projects that were curtailed due to the civil
war included efforts to  terrace the land for expanded arable land
for farming, the construction of earthen barriers to  prevent the
run off of top soil, and the replanting of trees and grasses. 
Terracing the land into  steps requires removing earth to alleviate
the sloping effect of the hillsides.  This allows  farmers to work
greater sections of the land and to increase cultivation and
production of food.   Earthen barriers are constructed from the
removed soil and rock, due to the terracing, to  protect against
rainfall washing away top soil as the water runs downhill.  Most
importantly,  the replanting of trees, bushes, and grasses creates
a root system that also hold the soil in place  after heavy rains. 
The deforestation and clear cutting removes the soil saving
structures in  place when there are foliage and roots.  If trees
are to be cut then replanting needs to occur to  retain the natural
barriers to soil erosion.  Environmentalists warn that if forests,
waters and  wildlife are not protected in these regions, there may
be little left to sustain local populations  once the political
problems are resolved (Chaudry 1996).
 
     Nowhere are the problems expressed by government officials
more evident than in the  Kashmir Valley, where a number of war-
related environmental abuses have converged to  threaten the
livelihood of thousands of people and the existence of an important
ecological  habitat.  In addition to the deforestation and soil
erosion problems, other environmental  conditions are being
overlooked or exploited.  At Dachigam National Park, just outside
the  Kashmiri summer capital of Srinagar, both militants and Indian
military forces have been  accused of slaughtering the rare Kashmir
stag, an endangered species of red deer.  The red  deer used to
flourish in the area but troops from both sides of the conflict
detail the need for  provisions and food that  their benefactors
(government of India for the Indian troops and  Muslim extremists
for the separatist factions) have been unable to supply. 
Consequently the  deer, birds, and fish in the area are being used
to nourish the troops.  Similar accusations of  poaching have been
made against guerrilla warriors seeking refuge in the Manas Tiger
Reserve  that straddles northeastern India and Bhutan. (Moore
1994).  "When thousands of people have  been killed, no one is
going to think and talk about wildlife," said Noorul Hassan, who
served  as chief of the Kashmir Valley forest service for more than
three decades before his retirement.   "If a few hundred deer have
been killed, so what?" (Moore 1994).  

 WATER PEOPLE ON THE LAKE

     In the last 50 years the lake has shrunk to about half of its
original size.  And almost  two-thirds of the remaining 4.6 square
miles has become smothered by vegetation in the six  years since
the civil war began and India posted an estimated 500,000 troops in
the state of  Jammu and Kashmir, according to Rasheeduddin
Kundangar, a scientist at Srinagar's Sri  Pratap College (Moore
1994).
 
     Greatly affected are the approximately 4,000 lake people, who
farm their vegetables on unusual floating islands built form reeds,
send their children to class by school boats and  supplement their
diets with the fish.  Pollution is reducing their catches, forcing
more of them  to build more  islands', which diminish the water
area.  The thick, interwoven mats of water  weeds have reduced the
mobility of a society in which all movement and commerce takes
place  on water.  Watermen now are being forced to sell vegetables
on the streets of Srinagar or to  push their children into carpet
weaving to help their families survive. (Moore 1994).  

     Sonya Chaudry, an analyst with the Center for South Asia
Research in Hong Kong, has indicated that many of the "illegal"
carpet businesses employ children from the Dal Lake area.   "When
you see a five or six year old girl, on her hands and knees,
working over a loom for ten  to twelve hours a day it just breaks
your heart." (Chaudry 1996).  The children can make the  equivalent
of 30 cents a day but the long term damage to working such extended
hours, in  cramped conditions, makes their usefulness limited.  The
average child weaves for 10 years and  by age 15 or 16 is too
gnarled and handicapped to be of much further use.  The ranks are
easily  filled by other eager hands whose parents push them to make
money to support the family.  (Chaudry 1996).  
 
 POLLUTION OF THE LAKE

     In addition to the land and water environmental destruction,
many former structures  and landmarks are being inhabited by
warring factions that look more to defeating their  enemies rather
than to the potential long-tern problems that are being created for
the region.   The once heavily visited and picturesque seasonal
tourist hotels have now been turned into  year round military
barracks that pump tons of raw waste into the lake.  As the
conflict  continues so too does the amount of waste and garbage
being dumped into the lake.  On the  steep hillsides above the
lake, Indian military officials, Kashmiri militants and
impoverished  natives are taking advantage of the lack of
regulation to strip the mountains of their forest  cover.  The
resultant silt is changing nutrient balances and helping in the
growth of algae and  lake-clogging vegetation.  The appearance of
red algae, which thrive in polluted and stagnant  water and spread
over vast portions of the lake, has been one of the most serious
problems in  recent years.  The red algae blocks sunlight which
lake plankton use for food and survival.  
     As the plankton die, the smaller water plants and bugs which
feed on the small  organisms die as well.  Larger fish and birds
eat these smaller creatures and the lake dwellers  use the bigger
animals for food.  With the appearance of the red algae, the entire
food chain is  severed and the traditional villagers do not have
enough to eat.  When the patches first  appeared four years ago,
the lake dwellers believed it was the blood of the thousands of 
Cashmeres killed during the civil war.  All too often now, red
slime covers the surface, the lake  people struggle to navigate
weed-choked canals and fewer birds return to their nesting sites in 
the trees on banks.
 
 THE LOGGING COMPANIES AND THE  TREE HUGGERS'

     Another source of concern is the selling off of forests and
timber in semi-legal deals to  local logging companies.  In order
to raise needed monies to continue the struggle, both sides  of the
conflicting parties have used the sale of timber to support their
aims.  The logging  companies carve roads into the area, strip the
land of much of the old growth forest and  depart, leaving bare
hillsides exposed to the heavy rainfall common to the area.  The
rain  waters rush down the hills, covered only by loose soil, and
transplant the earth into the fragile  ecosystem of the lake.  "Day
by day it is getting worse," said the 45-year-old boatman know as 
Lhasa.  "One day there will be no lake" (Moore 1994).
 
     The timber companies act with little government inspection and
often disappear from  the area before fines and arrests can occur. 
The timber companies strip clear the land and  transport the wood
to coastal shipping ports for export.  It is estimated that the
companies  have been making millions of dollars in the timber
sales.  The potential profit that will be lost if  there is a
change in the status of the contracts or the ability to harvest the
timber causes fierce  lobbying by the companies to the India
government.  In many instances the local villagers have  been
offered bribes to allow the companies to continue their work.
(Nelson 1993).  

     Many local villages have begun to organize "tree hugger"
brigades that attempt to  safeguard the old growth timber ( See CHIPKO case ).  Each day,  while the men
work in their plots of land trying to carve out meager crops to
sell in local  markets, the women march into the forests and wrap
themselves around trees to protect them  from the logging company's
saws.  A contractor offered 1,000 rupees (a substantial sum to the 
impoverished villagers) if the women would get out of the way.
(Nelson 1993, 119). "One  thousand rupees are not necessary.  The
trees are," said Kalawati Devi, a local "tree hugger" leader
(Nelson 1993, 119).  This nonviolent protest has created problems
for the timber companies and India government alike.  Often
government representatives, as ordered by their  superiors, visit
the forest to try and persuade the women to let the cutters do
their contracted  work.  Arrests and incidents of abuse have been
reported but still, each day the women return  to protect the
forests that have provided for the villagers for hundreds of years. 
Wood for  cooking and housing is disappearing and the loss of the
trees creates conditions, such as mud  slides and the shrinkage of
local lakes, that force the villagers to relocate to other areas. 
(Nelson 1993).
 
 PRE-CIVIL WAR PERIOD

     Dal Lake suffered from serious pollution problems before the
civil war began.  The lake was once a popular domestic and
international tourist area.  Its luxurious  hotels and spas catered
to famous clients and wealthy patrons alike.  For example, George 
Harrison, former member of The Beatles was often seen vacationing
in and around the Dal  Lake area.  When it was a tourist haven,
more than 1,000 houseboats ringed the lake--and  dumped untreated
sewage into the water.  The 700,000 residents of Srinagar, which
has no  water treatment systems, traditionally have used the lake
and nearby rivers as toilets, sinks and  was basins.  But just as
international aid organizations were beginning to pump million of 
dollars into programs, war erupted and all outside efforts were
suspended.  What few  government projects were underway became
public works programs, aimed more at giving  local contractors jobs
than preserving the lake.  A $225,000 settlement basin was built to 
control soil runoff into the lake but it never was put into
operation (Hazarika 1994).  

 CONCLUSION

     Token governmental efforts to control some of the problems
have been misguided,  according to Kundangar and other scientists. 
Giant weed harvesters troll the lake but prune  only the tops of
the water weeds, making the aquatic plants grow even faster,
Kundangar said  (Moore 1994).  As long as the area continues to
harbor civil strife and logging companies  continue to clear cut
the hillsides the problems in the Kashmir Valley and Dal Lake will 
continue.  The United Nations has attempted to intervene in the war
but has had only limited  and temporary success.  Both warring
factions indicate the need for an end to the conflict while  at the
same time continuing to duel over the mountainous region.  It is
thought that the "tree  hugging" movement may help slow the
environmental damages but without international  attention and aid,
no solution is on the horizon.
 
 3.  Related Cases:
      1.  HIMALAYA
      2.  BAIKAL
      3.  CHIPKO
      4.  EVEREST
 
 4.  Draft Author: Christopher Duvall (September, 1996)
 
 II.  LEGAL CLUSTERS
 
 5.  Discourse and Status: DISagree and ALLEGE
 
 6.  Forum an Scope: FEW and MULTIlateral
 
     Though the United Nations, through the United Nations Military
Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), has been in contact
and attempted to soothe relations in the  Kashmir Valley, little
progress has been made.  The conflicts arise between India,
Pakistan, and  the Kashmiri people.
 
 7.  Decision Breadth: INDIA, PAKISTAN, KASHMIR VALLEY
 
 8.  Legal Standing: SUBLAW
 
 III.  GEOGRAPHIC CLUSTERS
 
 9.  Geographic Location:
 
 a.  Geographic Domain: ASIA
 b.  Geographic Site: SOUTHWEST
 c.  Geographic Impact: INDIA
 
 10.  Sub-National Factors: YES
 
 11.  Type of Habitat: TROPical
 
 IV.  TRADE CLUSTERS
 
 12.  Type of Measure: NAPP
 
 13.  Direct vs. Indirect Impacts: DIR
 
 14.  Relation of Trade Measure to Environmental Impact
 
 a.  Directly Related to Product: YES, WOOD
 b.  Indirectly Related to Product: YES, AGRI
 c.  Not Related to Product: YES, RIGHTS
 d.  Related to Process: YES, ERODE
 
     Due to the rampant deforestation in the area a number of
different items are effected.   The deforestation removes trees
deemed necessary for the survival of the local villagers  includes
the loss of cooking and shelter wood.  The clear cutting also
effects the soil erosion  on the hill sides and therefore, during
and after heavy rainfall, pollutes and shrinks nearby  waterways
and lakes.  The inability to sustain traditional farming methods on
the waters and on  the little arable land causes residents to
migrate to cities and look for work including child  labor and
prostitution.  In addition to the deforestation, pollution caused
by tons of raw  sewage being dumped into nearby waters causes
similar problems as above for the local  inhabitants.
 
 15.  Trade Product Identification: Wood
 
 16.  Economic Data:
     
     Average family income in Kashmir Valley = 230 - 500 rupees a
month (Chaudry 1996)      Cost of soil erosion plan allocated by
World Bank = $255,000 (in 1994 dollars)      Average income of
child labor (carpet weaving) = 12 rupees a day (Chaudry 1996)     
Percent of Dal Lake shrinkage per year = 10%
 
 17.  Impact of Trade Restrictions: LOW
 
 18.  Industry Sector: WOOD
 
 19.  Exporters and Importers: INDIA and MANY
 
 V.  Environmental Clusters
     
 20.  Environmental Problem Type: DEFORestation
 
 21.  Name, Type , and Diversity of Species: NA
 
 22.  Resource Impact and Effect: MEDIUM and SCALE
 
 23.  Urgency of Problem: MEDIUM and 20 years
 
 24.  Substitutes: SYNTH
 
 VI.  OTHER FACTORS
 
 25.  Culture: YES
 
     The villagers of the Kashmir Valley have lived a lifestyle of
tradition that has been  passed down for hundreds of years.  Their
farming techniques, architecture, and customs have  remained
relatively unchanged even after the independence of India and the
separation of  Pakistan from India.  Deforestation and pollution
are causing numerous changes in the "old  ways" and often the
villagers have difficulty coping.  There is a routine to their
lives: men work  the land and the women child rear and gather wood
for cooking and shelter.  With the loss of  the old-growth timber
villagers are becoming more and more nomadic to locate the
necessary  wood.  Pollution to the lake waters and its shrinking
size exacerbates the problems of  sustaining traditional customs
and survival.     
 
     Sonya Chaudry, an analyst with the Center for South Asia
Research in Hong Kong, has  indicated that many of the "illegal"
carpet businesses employ children from the Dal Lake area.   "When
you see a five or six year old girl, on her hands and knees,
working over a loom for ten  to twelve hours a day it just breaks
your heart." (Chaudry 1996).  The children can make the  equivalent
of 30 cents a day but the long term damage to working such extended
hours, in  cramped conditions, makes their usefulness limited.  The
average child weaves for 10 years and  by age 15 or 16 is too
gnarled and handicapped to be of much further use.  The ranks are
easily  filled by other eager hands whose parents push them to make
money to support the family.  (Chaudry 1996).  
 
 26.  Trans-Boundary Issues: YES
 
 27.  Right: YES
 
     Few reports or human rights abuses have been noted so far in
the skirmishes between  the logging companies and the local
residents.  Many abuses have been reported on both side  of the
civil war with each side murdering, raping, and pillaging as the
warring faction continue  to change their territorial positions.
 
 28.  Relevant Literature:
 
Burberry, Jill.  1991. "Imagine the Water". Contemporary Review. 
April v256n1491, pp. 215-216  

Hazarika, Sanjoy.  1994.  "India's Forests are Besieged, But are
Growing Nevertheless".  The  New York Times.  8/21/94, pp. 11
 
Moore, Molly.  1994.  "Kashmir Fighting Speeds Pollution of India's
Idyllic Dal Lake".  The  Washington Post.  11/1/94, pp. A15.
 

Nelson, Brian.  1993.  "Chipko Revisited".  Whole Earth Review. 
Summer n79, pp. 116-123.  

                            Endnotes
 
     Much of the information gathered for this case study has been
provided by ex-patriots  from the region that are now living in
Beijing and Hong Kong.  They were interviewed during  my travels in
Asia from June 1 to July 10, 1996.
 
 Interviews:
 Chaudry, Sonya, June 23, 1996, Hong Kong
 Mohammed, Tariq, July 3-4, 1996, Beijing, Japan