CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURE IN KASHMIR

Introduction

Climate change is no longer a hypothetical future—it is a lived experience, a reality that is playing out in uneven and unpredictable rhythms worldwide. While the world struggles to come to terms with rising oceans, scorching heatwaves, and diminishing biodiversity, mountain zones such as Kashmir have their own distinct and cumulative vulnerabilities. In this context, the challenge of climate change is not merely environmental but also deeply socio-economic, with agriculture proving to be one of the most vulnerable and tenuous sectors.

Kashmir’s agrarian crisis must be understood in this larger planetary context. The region, located deep within the western Himalayas, is undergoing climate change that fundamentally unravels the closeness between its ecology, economy, and daily life. The Kashmir climate crisis is not just about unpredictable rainfall or diminished snowfall—it is about the incremental erosion of a centuries-old agricultural culture, a danger to the food sovereignty of a population, and the quiet dissolution of rural livelihoods.

As the planet warms globally, the stakes extend far beyond increasing mercury levels. They cut to the core of indigenous systems of knowledge, undermine centuries-honed farming methods, and test the viability of existence in one of India’s most ecologically and politically charged regions. Grasping climate change in Kashmir, then, necessitates more than atmospheric science—it requires an integrated perspective on an ecological unspooling with deeply human ramifications.

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