Sheikh Saqlain

“Where has the ‘Poshnool’ gone?” My grandmother asks me on a chilly winter morning. “There was a time when we heard ‘Kustoors,’ ‘Hazar Dastans,’ and ‘Poshnools’ singing from tree perches in our backyard.”

“I do miss the songbirds. Where did they go?” Her questions make me long for melodies that I have never heard and probably never will. The numbers of some of our sweetest songbirds have declined drastically, leaving Srinagar devoid of their melodies.

The loss of green cover, change in the social habitat and chemical fertilizers used in gardens and lawns has had the greatest impact on bird population.

Ornithologists say the decrease in their population is also due to Kashmir’s social and cultural changes in the past four decades.  Residents of Srinagar city and other parts of Kashmir have replaced most of the traditional mud-brick and wood constructions, which were the favorite nestling spots of many birds, with those of concrete.

Furthermore, earlier generations would ensure sufficient feed for these birds as a daily ritual. “The present generation is least interested in birds,” Kuldeep Singh Jamwal points out in his book “How green was the Vale of Kashmir.”

The Kustoor’s melodies are no longer heard at the crack of dawn or at dusk in Kashmir, and the song of the Bulbul, which would cheer on children and the elderly alike, is also fading away.

The Poshnool sang, sounding like a loud flute, as it hopped from one tree to another. This yellow and black bird, the Poshnool or the golden oriole, is not heard in the city anymore.

When the biting cold would silence Kashmir in the winters, the Hazar Dastan would descend from alpine mountains and sing sweetly for the early risers in Srinagar. It is said that the bird would tell tales in its songs, hence the name Hazar Dastan, or thousand tales.

Read  Full story here:

https://www.ourlostparadise.com/in-kashmir-melodies-of-poshnool-hazaar-dastaan-are-fading-away/