We in Chitral are more affected, living in the farthest corner of the country, from the much debated clamour of climate change and have seen disasters, gigantic floods and gigantic avalanches that don’t occur in the plain parts of the country.
The natural disasters are not new or a product of the last few decades as understood by the modern experts who say that it is a new phase in the history of humanity. Of course it has many manmade aspects and most of them are the handiwork of our own activities. In Chitral, we have adopted or can say many new activities have been introduced that did not exist in the past. For example, from the dark days of Ziaul Haq, who dictated the country and used drastic steps against innocent humans, we have been enjoying unnecessarily polo tournaments at Shandur pass – 12,500 ft. It was a heresy regularized by the man mentioned above and his successors. I shall come to its negative aspects in the third para.
Natural disasters have hit various parts of Chitral from time immemorial. Floods have flown down and swept away whole villages, humans, livestock, crops etc. I remember very well that in 1966 there was a great avalanche in Terich valley and 13 souls lost their lives. At that age, the idea of global warming was nowhere on the horizon. Environmental sciences are the brainchild of the last few decades.
Another flash flood hit the middle par villages of Terich in July 1953 and inundated houses, croplands, while houses were blown into the main river with boxes of flour seen by the people on both sides of the river and communication broke down on the destruction of bridges. The same type of disaster in summer has been seen in other villages such as Gohkir, Brep, Shagram etc.
You may ask older people about such disasters. At present, we look at the government and NGOs etc. to come to distribute handful of DALS and flour and even many people demolish their own walls and stand and wait for government officials to visit and pay them cash. It is a pity and a matter of sham for all of us. In the past, after a disaster the local people worked together and reconstructed their infrastructure and did not wait for the state relief. The government relief and the ones coming from NGOs have made the people corrupt and idle. They sit idle and wait for free supply. This has made people dishonest and the credit of self-reliance has disappeared from the society. The NGOs get huge amounts from the donors but the victims receive very minimal amount- most of the donations are spent on manipulated paper work and goes to the pocket of the men in the line from top to bottom.
No 1. The Shandur and Boroghil polo festivals are comparatively younger and products of modern way of thinking of entertainment. The polo matches are played in different villages from March to October each year and not any new addition for recreation. Many polo tournaments are held at Chitral polo ground or at Booni and Kosht so there is no danger of losing that part of our culture. Then what is the need of carrying it to Shandur which has a very fragile environment.
After seven days the whole Shandur plateau loses all its vegetation with their roots and the flocks and yaks get nothing to eat. The huge dust is blown by high winds to the nearby glaciers and the dust particles deposit on the glaciers and trigger the melting rate of the glaciers hence more water flows down and GLOFs or floods start to move down to the lower parts of the bear by valleys and it gets momentum and cause disasters. The same happens at Boroghil. It is all manmade. The thousands of vehicles, humans and other elements cause the huge dust beside the gases emitted by the round the clock running engines at that height.
- Secondly, almost half or more of the people of Chitral keep goats and for herding them Gujoor grazers are hired at high cost. They drive the flocks to the very edge of the glaciers and stay there from May to November and the number of the flock is too high for the fragile ecosystem of alpine pastures. This creates huge dust and as soon as drops of rain fall on the dust the floods begging to flow down and join at the bottom of each valley from all sides and that flood destroys the villages below so the presence of Gujoor herders is the main cause of the floods in upper Chitral but in the past no Gujoor grazed there in summers and the local flocks were not driven as high as the present herder does. The dust is also blown by alpine winds to the nearby glaciers and the same reaction occurs as discussed earlier.
Therefore, the Shandur polo festival, Boroghil yak festival should be banned. The polo in the villages and headquarters is enough for entertainment. As far as the Gujoor herders is concerned there should be rules to be introduced by the govt. in consultation with the communities to limit their activities and few should be allowed to reach that higher grazing grounds to conserve the alpine Environment and the glaciers.