It provides drinking water for over 50k soul, but faces official apathy; if it will be developed as a tourist spot, it can generate employment for many people here, says locals
Qazigund:- For ages, the residents in Panzath, a village in Qazigund area of South Kashmir, have sustained the tradition of taking extreme care of their springs. It has gradually emerged as a local festival that is now attracted people from other villages also.
Armed with baskets and nets, villagers flock to the Panzath spring for the annual fish-catching ritual.
According to a local resident, Panzath represents 500 springs, including adjacent ones on the Pir Panjal foothills. The spring Panzath serves as a vital source of irrigation and drinking water for hundreds of families in Qazigund. Every year, before paddy cultivation begins, local residents clear the water body by removing silt and weeds to ensure proper irrigation.
“I have been participating in this annual festival since I was a child. Panzath Nag was just about a kilometre away from my home, there are people who travel from nearly 50 kilometres away to clean the Panzath Nag or just watch,” a local resident said.
“Every year in the third or fourth week of May, villagers pick a day when the apple, almonds and walnut orchards are full of blossoms. They clean Panzath Nag, spread across a 500 metres area, and also catch fish. It is a practice they have inherited from their ancestors”, he said.
“We wait all year for this day. People take home the fish they catch on this day and cook a feast for friends and family on that day,” Bahrooz Bashir, a local resident said.
“It needs proper attention at an earliest and if it will be developed as a tourist spot, it can generate employment for many people here,” he added.
Locals requested district administration to take up the upkeep and maintenance of the spring and save it from facing extinction.