Nomads, nature and narrow roads: Army, police keep vigil as remote Sinthan Pass emerges as alternate J&K lifeline

KISHTWAR: On a sunny Tuesday (August 19) morning, a policeman was quietly checking drivers’ license numbers at Chatroo village in Kishtwar after receiving a signal that the Sinthan road was open. The government had closed the road on Sunday evening (August 17) after a weather advisory warned of heavy rains and possible cloudbursts in the hilly regions of Jammu and Kashmir.Two days later, when the road reopened, a few private vehicles lined up at Chatroo, a quiet hill station, luckily without hotels and high-end restaurants. Around 9.30am, they were allowed to move. Barely two kms ahead, the Army stopped them at another checkpoint in Chingam, the last village in Kishtwar where soldiers verify the ID cards of commuters, take photographs and only then allow them to continue.Just a km ahead, mobile phone signals disappeared. From there, the road offered only towering mountains, dense forests and silence. The Sinthan road or NH-244 connects Kishtwar district of Jammu with Anantnag district of the Valley and it serves as an alternate route to the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH-44). At the top, one gets a panoramic view of both regions of J&K.The Sinthan pass lies at an altitude of 12,500 feet (3,800 m) above sea level in the Pir Panjal range of mountains, stretching for nearly 80 km which remains snow-covered for much of the year. The road usually opens by the end of May and closes again in October with the first snowfall.The road is blacktopped but narrow. In bad weather, it turns dangerous. Mountain streams flow down the serpentine road from Chingam to Sinthan Top at several points. During rains, the water often floods the road, making it difficult for vehicles to pass. Travellers’ risk getting stranded without help.The ascent from Chingam to Sinthan Top opens one narrow valley after another, most of which are draped under alpine forests. At higher places, clouds float below in the valley and the only people you see are nomadic families with their flocks of sheep and goats. Women and children sometimes ride horses or walk along the road, moving freely, in love with nature.Often, you find them walking on the edge of steep cliffs so close to danger that you wonder how they do it. You look back a moment later and they are already down on the slopes, leaving you surprised and you again say “how they do it.”At Sinthan Top, a nomad family was busy shearing lambs for wool. Men and women worked together, some shearing, others preparing tea and laughing. They were all smiles. They even complain with a smiling face. Mountains bring a certain calmness in people.“Earlier, wool would sell at Rs 110 to Rs 120 per kg. Now it sells for just Rs 10 to Rs 20,” one of them said smiling and inviting you for nun chai (salt tea). “We shear lambs in August, March and December.”The family had travelled from Reasi district of Jammu with their flock and planned to return in September before the snow closed the pass. This seasonal migration is part of the centuries-old lifestyle of the Gujjars and Bakarwals who move through the high passes in the Pir Panjal and Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir every year.A short and easy two km hike from Sinthan Top takes you to Girsar, one of several dozen high altitude oligotrophic lakes nestled in the girdle of mountains around Kashmir valley.Children from the nomadic families watch travellers curiously, breaking into shy smiles when photographed. Further down the road from Sinthan Top towards Kashmir, the valleys open up again, smaller hills leading into the higher ranges and clouds touch the ground.Before the descent, a large signboard greets visitors: “Wishing you a happy journey. NH-244, please visit again.” At this spot, there are valleys on both sides of the road. Beautiful and vast. Travellers stop to rest, take photographs, some make reels, but they also leave behind piles of plastic bottles, food wrappers and other waste. There is no one to pick it up. As you descend towards Kashmir you enter Daksum valley, which is known as trekking paradise. Unlike Chatroo, the valley was crowded with tourists and hotels and restaurants all around.