With loved ones lost, businesses hit, Srinagar residents stare at dubious future

Srinagar: A month after the Kashmir floods, the ravaged state is beginning to count it's losses. Homes and businesses have been wiped away, the tourism sector has suffered losses to the tune of Rs 3000 crores.

Once a piece of art is now reduced to a pile of garbage. This is what remains of this 200-year-old silk carpet at Srinagar's handicraft hub of Polo View. "This carpet is around 200 years old, costs around Rs 30 lakh. We are going to throw it away now. All the handicrafts, Pashmina, everything has been destroyed. We are left with nothing now," says Abdul Ali Bhatt, shopkeeper in the Polo View market.

The floods have been equally unkind to Srinagar's biggest market- Lal Chowk. Water levels rose to almost 18 feet there, submerging everything in sight. Only piles of damaged goods and silt is what remains.

As he gingerly steps over piles of sludge, Farook Ahmed Shah surveys the damage at his godown in Lal Chowk. He says he has suffered a loss of Rs 2.5 crore but it is best to get back to business. His shop is one of the few that has opened it's shutters.

"It is marriage season, festival season and winter season. So wholesalers stock up things. Now everything is gone. We stock up things three months in advance in godowns. Everything has been washed away. People, traders are in depression here. I don't know when they will return to work," says Shah.

Barely 5 kms away at the breathtaking Dal lake, Gulam Nabi is back at work with his shikara. But not a single tourist has come after the floods, he says, despite this being peak tourist season.

"This is peak season, flowers used to bloom here during this time but the flood waters have taken it all. It has taken away our work too. It has taken away our happiness. All the houseboats are empty," says a disappointed Ghulam Nabi.

The calm waters of the lake belie the fury and destruction it caused a month ago. Losses to the tourism industry stand at Rs 3000 crores. This at a time when the industry was on the upswing after a decade of terrorism.

The state government estimates that the floods have caused damages to the tune of a trillion rupees. As the sun sets off the Kashmir valley, the darkness hides the trail of destruction the floods have left behind. But ahead is the long and arduous task of reconstruction.