Rajatarangini tells us that King Ashoka built the city of Srinagar for the first time in history. Historians make wild surmises of its initial location although, in all probability, they assume the present site of Pandrethan as the imagined locale. Pandrethen (in spoken Kashmiri) is corruption of Sanskrit Puranadhishthana. However, the actual geography and layout of the city then is not clear. Kalhana tells us that more than a hundred thousand houses made up the locality of Puranadhishthana. With the passage of time, the site of the capital city changed, moving northward as well as eastward along the Jhelum. During the rule of early Hindu Kings, present Nayut (in spoken Kashmiri, and corruption of Nava+Hata in Sanskrit) locality became the centre of their capital. During the period of Sultans, the capital city moved further north in present locality of Hawal, which actually was a garrison headquarter during the Hindu rule. Hawal, in spoken Kashmiri is the corrupt form of Sanskrit shigar meaning camp. During the Sikh and Dogra rule, the main part of the city we today call Maisuma, was Makshikasvamin of Kalhana’s description of the island. Left enthusiasts with strong influence in the National Conference during latter’s anti-monarchy struggle gave it the name Lal Chowk. In their pro-communist euphoria, they had borrowed the name from Moscow’s Red Square in the hope that with these antics J&K, following the precedence of Bolshevik revolution of Russia, would become red. Strange are the quirks of destiny and pressures of history.
However, the name Shri Nagari, from which we have derived present Srinagar, is not to be found either in the Sanskrit/Pali works of latter Hindu period or in the Farsi histories written during the rule of Sultans and Afghans. The former historians used the word “nagari” while the latter used “Shahr” or “Shahr-e Kashmir.” During the reign of Mughals, it was called “Shahr-e-Khas”. The word “Shahr” is the corrupt form of Avestic “Shathra” and usually prefixed to “Iran” to denote either the land of Iran or the capital of Iran. Thus in Shahnameh, great epic poet Ferdowsi repeatedly writes “Shahr-e Iran”. Kashmiri historians of Sultanate period and even Birbal Kachroo of Sikh period write “Shahr-e Kashmir instead of Shrinagari. The name Srinagar became popular during the reign of later Sikh and Dogra rulers and continues down to present day,
Floods have been a recurring feature of this city because it was located on both banks of the Jhelum. However, the city would not be inundated as badly as happened in September last just because in olden days there were no obstructions to the flow of water of the river and its tributaries. Moreover, the Hokarsar wetland remained mostly de-silted. In 1903, there happened big floods in Kashmir. During Dogra rule and on the advice of British engineers, the present flood channel was dug to divert overflowing waters of Jhelum during rainy season. The flood channel by-passed Srinagar and disgorged in Hokarsar wetland. What happened are the gifts of modernity and the rule of no-responsibility/accountability. The flood channel deposited great amounts of silt in Hokarsar over the decades and now it is almost four meters high. Villagers made illegal encroachment and grabbed the emerging land thus reducing the area of Hokarsar wetland from 16 square kilometers to 4 kilometers at present. There is no exit channel to drain out overflowing waters from Hokarsar. Now, when there are heavy rains and flood that fill the channel to the brim, it brings both water and silt to Hokarsar, which has no more capacity of holding either. As such, there is back flow of floodwater in the flood channel, which becomes the source of flooding of the city of Srinagar.
The question is why has not the Government realized the seriousness of the situation and, instead of utilizing the allocated funds for de-silting of Hokarsar and creating an exit channel, it diverted them to Wular project? Obviously, there were political pressures to divert the funds and let the city of Srinagar remain exposed to the flood scourge. That is precisely what happened last September. In addition, who are to withstand the worst type of callousness of the administration? The helpless citizenry of the city of Srinagar have to suffer. Additionally, it is the taxpayers on national level, who have to raise enormous funds to the tune 41,000 crore rupees to save the city or rehabilitate the affected people. An agile and people-friendly Government in the State would never have diverted funds to other expenditure heads: it would have even cut other expenditures to divert funds for digging the exit channel at Hokarsar, de-silting the wetland and putting an end to illegal encroachments. Thank God that another impending flood has been averted just by natural intervention and not any man made machination. The Government has to remember that each hour and each day calls for action to save the city and its people from total devastation. The stretch of the bund of the river once proposed for rising higher has not materialized. How long should people suffer this rank negligence on the part of the authorities?
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