Floods root out Nadru

Kashmiris may not taste vegetable for years: Dal dwellers

Kashmiris may not taste their most cherished vegetable delicacy ‘Nadru’ for years if Dal dwellers are to be believed.
Nadru, a vegetable delicacy which grows as a lotus root in the waters of the Dal Lake, according to Dal dwellers, won’t grow after September 2014 floods damaged the crop.
Nadru grows in wetlands and swamps under water and then sprouts into a lotus flower between huge leaves of at least a feet of diameter.
There are many types of Nadru, which fetch maximum of Rs 1,000 per bundle.
“Around 10,000 kanals (1,250 acre) of wetlands in which Nadru was cultivated got affected by floods, and about Rs 40 crore loss is estimated,” said Ghulam Rasool Akhoon President Dal Dwellers Welfare Union.
A large chunk of population from Dal Lake and Nigeen Lake are associated with Nadru cultivation.
Nadru production involves group of people who are specialized in fishing out this long lotus stem. Dal dwellers use a long wooden stick which has an iron hook fastened to it (called nadir shom) at one end to hauls Nadru.
Then the Nadru is graded as per its thickness and quality and bundled. Each bundle cost between Rs 300 to Rs 1000 in the retail market.
Dal dwellers have been cultivating Nadru from centuries which most Kashmiris consider as a prized vegetable.
However, the rising levels of the waters after the last year’s floods have dimmed its growth prospects.
“Nadru seeds (lab kar) produce Nadru, after fishing out a fully developed Nadru, a small Nadru is left behind giving rise to a new Nadru in next season and this procedure continues. But now there are no seeds left, half of them got washed away and half rotted due to floods. The silt with the floods also damaged the seed,” said Ghulam Qadir, an elderly Dal dwellers who rows Shikara for his living now.
About 80 per cent population in 30 localities in the interiors of Dal Lake depend on vegetable crops especially on the cultivation of Nadru.
“I have got 2.25 acre of wetland in Abi Karpora. The 18 kanal fetched me 1500 bundles of Nadru worth rupees 3 lakh, but now my land can’t provide me with Nadru for next 7 years or more because of September floods,” said Ashiq Ahmad, a vegetable grower.
Vegetable growing and selling is the main livelihood of people residing in Dal, they survive most of the months on the money made from vegetable cultivation,
“Vegetable cultivating and selling provide us with adequate amount of money, lasting for around eight months, ferrying tourist is seasonal business, which doesn’t pay off much. We have got nothing to do now because of the floods, neither tourist’s came nor remained our lands,” said another grower.
“I lost 3000 bundles of Nadru worth Rs 6 lakh, we have nowhere to go, nothing to do,” he lamented.
There is nothing these folks can do other than waiting; no steps are being taken to help these people flourish their gardens again.
“We have got our hopes stick to the government now- agriculture department can import seeds from china and spare this delicacy (lotus stem) the extinction,” says Ghulam Rasool Akhoon adding “We can also import lotus leaves (khel wathar) from Mansbal or Zadibal, if there were any and if they thrive in the waters of Dal Lake.”
The complete absence of Nadru from the markets since many months now has also worried its ardent consumers, who believe that Nadru imported from other places lacks taste and quality.
“Be it any price, we are ready to pay for it, if only it’s homegrown. But not the Nadru imported from other places. It’s upsetting that many delicacies will be incomplete without Dal lakes Nadru,” rues Mubeena Fayaz a housewife.