BY AUTAR MOTA
I give local ( KASHMIRI ) names of some common trees found in the Kashmir valley.
PART A
POPLAR
Although poplar varieties range in height and breadth, most share some traits that make them easy to recognize. For example, you can often distinguish a poplar by its leaves that are often heart-shaped and rimmed with tiny teeth. Brilliant green in summer, they glow gold in autumn.
Poplar roots can crumble house foundations. Poplar trees don’t live long. A poplar tree can live up to a maximum of fifty years even under proper care. A poplar tree can rise to 150 feet in height with a trunk diameter of up to 6 feet. Poplars need fertile soil, acidic or neutral, as well as direct sun and sufficient water to keep their roots moist. Poplar trees thrive in warm weather and need moist to wet soil. There are about 35 varieties of Poplar trees in the world.
Tree grooves outside the forest range in the Kashmir valley comprise more than ninety per cent of poplars and willows. In the Kashmiri language, Poplar ( Safeda) is known as Fraes’t. “ Yohuy chhukh fraes’t hue “ is a common satire used in the Kashmiri language which means “you are simply tall without much utility “. This tree has now found much utility in the cricket bat, fruit packaging and plyboard industry. Accordingly, it is now cultivated commercially. Before that, it was used by poor people for house building in the Kashmir valley.
Poplars are the fastest growing tree species of Kashmir. The commercial plantation of this tree is considered as a cash crop. Apart from revenue generation, This tree has also been found useful in cleaning the environment by carbon sequestration and phytoremediation. It is also useful in ecological wastewater treatment systems, streambank stabilisation, soil building, biofiltration, soil erosion control, etc.
In Kashmir, this tree grows along canals and ponds or wetlands and needs low water table for its growth. Poplar tree in Kashmir looks brilliant green in summer season and during the autumn season, its leaves turn yellow and start falling to the ground. The tree looks like a naked Faquir during the winter season.
In Kashmir, Srinagar- Baramulla road had rows tall poplar trees on both sides that added grace and grandeur to this highway. So are poplars seen along Srinagar -Anantnaag road with a peak concentration near Bijbihara town in Kashmir. This peak concentration patch of poplars on the highway looks like a green tunnel. The soft cotton-like white fluff of poplar seed that floats in the air during late spring / early summer season in Kashmir, has been proving a health hazard lately. Some experts believe that the poplar tree ‘pollen’ has been aggravating respiratory illness in the Kashmir valley.
WILLOW
The Willow tree is believed to have existed in the Kashmir valley since ancient times. However, on the suggestion of Walter R. Lawrence ( who land bandobast in the state ) and J.C. Macdonell ( head of the forest department ), Maharaja Partap Singh ordered large scale plantation of the tree in the entire length and breadth of the Kashmir valley during the 19th century. The massive plantation of willow and poplar trees in and around the Wular lake by the J&K government during the twentieth century proved counterproductive. It dried up a major part of the lake and reduced the lake surface considerably. Walter R. Lawrence, in his book, ‘The Valley of Kashmir’, writes:-
“The Veer, or willow, grows in every village of Kashmir where there is water or moisture, and its reproduction is very simple. There is an enormous waste of withies every year, as the young wands are cut down for fodder and after being stripped of their leaves are burnt for fuel. I have suggested that a Kashmiri should be sent to England to learn the basket industry. There is ample material in the valley to supply the whole of India with excellent baskets and chairs.”
The willow is known as Veer in the Kashmiri language. Veer is a common tree in Kashmir’s countryside. A cluster of willows, known as Veer-vaar in Kashmiri is a common sight near streams and brooks. making a heavy demand on water, it grows along rivers, brooks and streams and lakes in the Kashmir valley. It is used as an ideal timber while the graded variety of the willow is used for making cricket bats. This Cricket bat industry is localized in Sangam-Halamulla village near Bijbihara town.
Apart from fuel, willow leaves are also used as animal fodder. dried willow leaves are stored on trees and used as animal fodder during the winter season in the Kashmir valley. These dried willow leaves are known as Baatchhi in Kashmir.
In every marriage function where cooks were engaged, willow stock was purchased months before the actual marriage date. It was cut to the proper size so that it could be burnt easily by the Kashmiri cooks in the open hearth or furnace known as Wura in Kashmiri.
The willow twigs or shoots are also used for Kangris, baskets, chairs and other useful domestic items. Many artisans of Kashmir are engaged in the manufacture of these willow items that are marketed within and outside the state. Fresh willow twigs were also used as Miswaakh (teeth cleaning brush ) in the Kashmir valley.
As timber, willow was also supplied through government depots to the public. It was much sought-after firewood at the government-run timber depots in the Kashmir valley.
…..to be continued
Autar Mota is a columnist and writes for local and national newspaper and journals
