Srinagar, February 10 : People in occupied Kashmir fear losing vast tracts of agricultural land they depend on for their livelihoods as New Delhi pushes a slew of roads, railways and other projects, famous Arab TV channel Al Jazeera reported.
The channel describes the phenomenon through an example wherein it states that the Indian government’s decision to construct an engineering college at the site in Pulwama – which includes almost all land of one Malik Haroon threatens to strip him and thousands of other cultivators in Kashmir of land, the source of economic livelihood for about 4 million people in the territory.
The report goes as:
“With the scenic snow-clad Pir Panjal mountains in the backdrop, Haroon’s 1.25 acres (0.5 hectares) of orchard land, fed by the Rumshi Nallah River in southern Pulwama, are plush with groves that yield nearly 30 tonnes of apples, pears, plums and almonds every year.”
“The income has helped his family of four sidestep widespread economic instability and an unemployment crisis in Indian-administered Kashmir since 2019, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian government scrapped Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which granted a special status to the Muslim-majority region.”
“Apart from stripping the region of its special status, the Modi government also carved it into two federally governed union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.”
“It is not just a college the government has planned for the region. Since 2019, New Delhi has authorised a series of mega projects – roads, tunnels, railway lines and residential complexes – which critics say could destroy not just prime agricultural land and livelihoods, but also the Himalayan region’s fragile topography.”
“Kashmiris accuse the government of sidelining them while making decisions about their lands – without consent or proper compensation.”
“Ghulam Muhammad Tantray, 65, owns 1.25 acres (0.5 hectares) of orchard land at Dirhama, a small cluster of 150 homes amid a vast swath of green fields covered with thousands of apple trees in the Anantnag [Islamabad] district.”
“The orchard fetches me about $13,000 every year,” Tantray says.
“But he fears losing his property after Indian railway officials arrived in Dirhama to conduct what they called a “survey” of lands in the area a year ago.”
“We had no idea what was coming until the [Indian] Railway Ministry revealed that it had commissioned a final location survey to add five new railway tracks to the region. We panicked like anything. It’s like losing something very dear to you. We have groomed this land and these trees like our children,” Tantray tells Al Jazeera.
“One of the projects that has triggered considerable anguish among residents in Pulwama is the establishment of a National Institute of Technology (NIT). The NITs are a government-run nationwide chain of engineering colleges, among the country’s most reputable tech schools. A whopping 600 acres (243 hectares) of land are being acquired for the college, according to a government notification issued on December 24, most of it prime agricultural and horticultural land and grazing grounds residents depend on for livelihoods.”
“The proposed land transfer affects as many as 10 villages in Pulwama,” says Haroon.”This land is our lifeline.”
He says that most people in these villages have no economic pursuits other than horticulture.
“Some rear sheep for a living but even then, it is these grounds where the livestock come to graze,” he says.
“The valley area of Indian-administered [occupied] Kashmir has long had just one railway line connecting the southern hill town of Banihal with the Baramulla district in the north.”
“But the government plans to add five more lines crisscrossing the valley, for which hundreds of acres of land will be acquired, thereby eliminating flourishing apple orchards and other plantations key to the region. …”
“One of the five new railway lines will cross Dirhama, where a railway station will also be built.”
“At least 80 of 150 homes in Dirhama will lose their key sources of income after the completion of the railway project,” says Tantray. “As for me, of the 1.25 acres [0.5 hectares] that I own, 1 acre [0.4 hectares] will be used up for the new railway station. What will that leave me with?”
“Tantray says the villagers have held several protests, demanding the railway station be relocated and reasoning with government officials that they “never asked for it”.
“The land is our family inheritance. It has ensured our livelihood for generations,” Tantray tells Al Jazeera. “In the face of a rising unemployment crisis, this land is the only option my three sons will have in case they are not able to get jobs.”
Another resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, says: “Locals in Kashmir do not know how these projects will benefit them.”
“Al Jazeera reached out to several government officials for their comments on the railway projects, but they did not reply.”
Pulwama resident Haroon also fears the proposed NIT project has military dimensions.
“It looks like this project is meant to create a more entrenched military presence here,” he says. “Otherwise, why would they need 600 acres [243 hectares] of land for the project? The 2014 guidelines issued by India’s Ministry of Human Resources put the ideal land requirement for NITs at 300 acres [121 hectares]. But this is twice as much.”
Altaf Thakur, spokesman for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the region, concedes that some of these projects “are of dual-use in nature”.
In another move that has prompted fears of a demographic change in the region, the [Modi] government last year announced the setting up of at least 30 residential colonies within a 500-metre (1,640ft) periphery of the Srinagar ring road.”
“Fears of a demographic alteration arose in Kashmir in 2020 when New Delhi relaxed rules for Indian nationals to settle in the region.
“Kashmiri academic Mohamad Junaid, assistant professor of anthropology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in the United States, tells Al Jazeera he fears the railway and other infrastructure projects are not based on Kashmiri people’s needs, “or even on future needs of the Kashmiri society”.
“They are meant to alter the landscape and disorient and disrupt the Kashmiri economy. It is death by a thousand infrastructure projects,” he says, adding the Kashmir Valley has “very limited agricultural land available which is critical for a large section of the society to sustain themselves”.
“Building such projects upon it will not only consume land but also disconnect communities and create barriers between them. While it is clear the railways are meant for Hindu pilgrimage and troop movement, it is even more worrisome that the government is creating ‘townships’ – for who? These settlements are not meant for Kashmiris.”
Activists, meanwhile, describe the ongoing land acquisitions for New Delhi’s projects as “arbitrary”, alleging that some aggrieved landowners were being compensated under a 1990 law, which they say became outdated after New Delhi scrapped the region’s special status.
“The newly-applicable Right to Fair Compensation Act of 2013 promises compensation four times the market rate,” says Raja Muzaffar Bhat, an environmental activist based in the region.
A retired government officer says the government invoked the 1990 law retrospectively because the 2013 law was not applicable when the notification for the project was issued in 2017. source KMS