By Khalid Bashir (Former Director, Information Department, J&K)
We, a fellowship of wanderers – Mohiuddin Reshi, Mohammad Yasin Khan, Nazir Ahmad Kabli, Fayaz Ahmad, Showkat Ahmad, Abdul Majid Khan, and myself – set forth today on a visit to a sanctuary of water and wing. Our destination: Shalbugh Wetland Conservation Reserve, a shimmering expanse lying eighteen kilometres from Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, where the Sindh River unfurls its delta west of Anchar Lake.
Spread across 16.75 square kilometres, Shalbugh is Kashmir’s largest natural wetland, bigger than the famed Hokersar Wetland Reserve. We wandered its pathways, tracing the lake’s edge, listening to the murmur of streams, and brushing past grasslands and reeds. Coots whispered across the waters, their wings slicing the air with sudden grace. We felt ourselves dissolve into the rhythm of nature’s breath.
Fed by rainfall, by snowmelt cascading from distant peaks, and by the flowing veins of the Sindh River and Anchar Lake, Shalbugh – together with Hokersar – forms a vital cradle for migratory waterfowl. Here, more than twenty-one species of resident and migratory birds find refuge including the endangered Steppe Eagle, Pallas’s Fish-Eagle, Black-Bellied Tern, and the vulnerable Eastern Imperial Eagle. Even the elusive Wood Snipe, rare and secretive, claims this wetland as its home.
According to the guardians of the Wildlife Protection Department, Shalbugh now hosts between two to two-and-a-half lakh migratory birds – a congregation of wings and songs that turn the wetland into a cathedral of flight. And as February approaches, the sanctuary awaits yet another influx, a fresh tide of winged visitors arriving from distant lands to weave their voices into Kashmir’s winter symphony.
It was more than a day’s outing. It was a communion with the eternal, a reminder that in the quiet shimmer of wetlands, the earth still speaks in poetry, and we, if only for a moment, become part of its verse.
Thanks to Abdul Majid Khan for playing a great host. The two rounds of tea were really refreshing and stimulating.
