In Kashmir, a 400-year-old fishing festival keeps community tradition alive

SRINAGAR: Hundreds of villagers carrying wicker baskets spread across the Panzath Nag (nag-spring) in Qazigund town of south Kashmir Sunday (May 17) dipping the baskets into the spring to catch fish, in what locals describe as a nearly 400-year-old community tradition.The annual “fish festival” attracts residents of all ages, who fan out across the waterbody, plunging baskets into it and lifting them out filled with fish, weeds and debris, which are then emptied along the banks. While hundreds participated in the exercise singing traditional songs, hundreds more who had come from different parts of the Valley, were witnessing the festival and sharing its joy from the banks.Panzath Spring is located in Panzath village, whose name is believed to have originated from Paanch Haath, meaning five hundred, a reference to the legendary 500 springs that once flowed through the area. Though most of those springs have disappeared over time, the community’s commitment to preserving its water heritage continues through this unique annual fishing-and-cleaning festival.This local conservation effort gained national recognition in 2023, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the Panzath festival in his Mann Ki Baat, praising residents for taking collective responsibility for protecting and restoring their vital water sources.Rao Farman Ali, an environmental activist and author, said Panzath Nag originates in Panzath village, sustains a wider network of springs and eventually flows into a stream that helps irrigate dozens of villages.“The festival is both an occasion for celebration and more importantly an act of community service and it helps in desilting the spring,” he said. “People enjoy it but at the same time they take collective responsibility for cleaning and desilting the spring. We can say it is an agricultural festival.”“This large-scale exercise helps us clean the waterbody,” said an elderly villager. “I have seen this happening every year since my childhood and I have heard from my elders that it began nearly 400 years ago.”Prof Gul Wani, former head of the political science department University of Kashmir, who travelled from Srinagar to witness the festival, said the tradition has survived largely through oral memory. “My sense is that it dates back to the Mughal era. What was once seen largely as a celebration and a festival has acquired more importance in the times when there are growing concerns over climate change and shrinking water bodies,” Prof Wani said. He said that Panzath Nag irrigates and provides drinking water to over 25 villages and is considered the lifeline of the area.He said authorities permit the fishing only once a year according to the tradition but it should be allowed twice annually. He said a modest government intervention could help preserve the spring, which is facing gradual erosion and declining capacity. “We live in times when people are blamed for encroachment and almost everything,” he said. “But here hundreds of people spend an entire day cleaning the spring and if they catch some fish along the way that is an added bonus. It needs to be appreciated.”