SUNDAY BYTES: The Story Valleyites Must Not Miss
Srinagar has made it to a list that no city would want to top. Should we mourn, or should we celebrate?
Dr Fiaz Maqbool Fazili
There is something deeply ironic about a city blessed with Dal Lake, Nigeen,Manasbal Jhelum, Wular, Mughal gardens, chinar trees flora , fauna and snow-covered mountains finding itself among India’s lowest-performing major cities on cleanliness.
According to the Swachh Survekshan 2024–25 results, Srinagar ranked 32nd among 40 million-plus cities, with a score of 7,488. It also figured at No. 9 among the ten lowest-ranked cities in the category. So, should the people of Srinagar celebrate the fact that we are not at the very bottom?
Absolutely not. We should be concerned. The But perhaps we should also be grateful—not for the ranking, but for the mirror it has held up to us.
A ranking is only a number. What matters is what lies behind it: overflowing garbage, plastic waste, poorly managed public spaces, encroachments, traffic indiscipline, littering, clogged drains, irresponsible parking, disregard for public property and, above all, a weakening sense of civic responsibility.
This is precisely where the question raised in the Kashmir Observer article, of mine “Why Kashmir Couldn’t Become Switzerland of the East,” becomes relevant. Kashmir possesses the natural beauty that the phrase “Switzerland of the East” evokes, but natural beauty alone cannot create a clean, orderly and civilized society. Nature gave us the landscape.
What have we given back to it?
The answer should make every gulla kak, every Amma lala , every concerned citizen, every environmentalist and every member of the Environmental Protection Group pause for thought.
For decades, we have spoken proudly about Kashmir’s beauty. We tell visitors about our lakes, gardens, mountains and rivers. We complain when outsiders litter. We blame tourists. We blame the municipality. We blame the administration. We blame insufficient bins, inadequate collection systems and poor enforcement.Some of those criticisms are justified.
But the uncomfortable truth is that civic cleanliness is not only an administrative problem. It is also a behavioural problem.
My article “Dream of Living in a Civilized Society” published earlier in Rising Kashmir (RK) makes this point powerfully through ordinary experiences: garbage being thrown into public spaces, vehicles blocking gates, people jumping queues, chaotic traffic, disrespect for public property and litter floating in water bodies.These are not spectacular crimes. They are small acts.And yet, when millions of small acts of irresponsibility accumulate, they produce the large-scale ugliness that we then describe as “the system”.
Perhaps this is the real lesson of Srinagar’s ranking.We cannot demand an Indore-style transformation while behaving as though cleanliness is somebody else’s job.We cannot throw a wrapper from a moving car and then complain about dirty streets.We cannot dump household waste beside a drain and then blame the municipality when the drain chokes.We cannot celebrate Dal Lake in photographs while treating its waters as a dumping ground.We cannot demand world-class tourism infrastructure while ignoring the basic etiquette expected of citizens and visitors.
And we certainly cannot aspire to become a “civilized society” merely by building roads, beautifying squares or installing decorative lights.
Civilization is visible in behaviour
It is visible when a person carries waste until finding a bin. It is visible when a shopkeeper keeps the area outside his establishment clean. It is visible when a driver does not park at somebody’s gate. It is visible when people respect queues, public property and pedestrians. It is visible when citizens stop treating public space as nobody’s property.
This is where the four Rs mentioned by Fazili—Rights, Responsibilities, Rules of Law and Respect for the rights of others—offer an interesting framework. We are very conscious of our rights.We want clean streets.We want better roads.We want functioning drains.We want beautiful lakes.We want efficient municipal services.But rights have a corresponding word that we often forget: responsibility.
If citizens have the right to a clean city, they also have the responsibility not to dirty it.If citizens have the right to public spaces, they have the responsibility to protect them.If citizens want the administration to enforce laws, they must also respect those laws.And if we want others to behave responsibly, we must begin with ourselves.
The state and its arms of checks and balances , of course, cannot escape accountability.
Municipal authorities need better waste segregation, collection, processing and disposal. There must be adequate manpower, scientific waste management, enforcement against littering and stronger monitoring. Public toilets, drains, parking management and pedestrian infrastructure need sustained attention.
A cleanliness campaign cannot be reduced to a few photographs of officials holding brooms.Nor can it become an annual ritual performed only when a national survey approaches.Cleanliness has to become a continuous civic system, not a seasonal spectacle.
Environmental groups , concerned citizens ( mostly past excutives) and civil society also have an important role. The answer cannot always be another government scheme. Schools, mohalla committees, traders’ associations, resident welfare groups, religious institutions, NGOs and youth organisations can create a culture where littering becomes socially unacceptable.And perhaps our elders have the most important role of all.
The gulla kak and Amma laka generation remembers a Kashmir when many things were repaired rather than discarded, when community spaces carried a stronger sense of ownership, and when environmental consciousness was often embedded in everyday life rather than expressed through slogans.
“We need that memory.,We also need modern systems.The two must meet,says Kashmirs Gen Z.
So, should Srinagar’s ranking make us mourn.Yes.But mourning alone is useless.
Should we celebrate?Only if the ranking becomes the beginning of an honest conversation about what kind of city we want to leave for our children.Srinagar does not need another slogan about being paradise on earth.It needs citizens who behave as though paradise is something that must be protected.The real challenge is not whether Srinagar can move from rank 32 to rank 20 or 10.
The real challenge is whether we can reach a point where such a ranking no longer embarrasses us because our streets, lakes, public spaces and civic behaviour already tell a different story.
Kashmir’s greatest environmental asset is not Dal Lake, the mountains or the chinars. It is its people.If that human resource develops a stronger culture of responsibility, cleanliness and respect for shared spaces, then perhaps the old dream of a “Switzerland of the East” will finally begin—not with tourism advertisements, but with the simple act of a citizen refusing to throw a piece of garbage on the street.
That would be a ranking worth celebrating.
Why My Pen Does Not Stop…Not another number. Another concern. Sometimes the mirror must be held up—not to accuse anyone, but to help all of us see ourselves more honestly.
(STRAIGHT TALK COMMUNICATIONS EXCLUSIVE)
