Srinagar: People’s Democratic Party leader Iltija Mufti has expressed concern over the early melting of the naturally formed ice lingam at the Amarnath cave shrine, attributing it to climate change and environmental degradation in Kashmir.
In a post on X, Iltija said the ice lingam had already melted just a week into the annual Amarnath Yatra. She blamed indiscriminate felling of trees, illegal mining, poor waste management and dangerous depletion of water levels as major factors accelerating climate change in the Valley.
She alleged that environmental concerns had become a casualty of Kashmir’s politics, saying the issue carried “no power currency”.
Calling for urgent action, Iltija advocated a long-term sustainable environmental and tourism policy on the lines of Bhutan, warning that without such measures, Kashmir’s mountains, rivers and glaciers would not survive and “Kashmir will cease to exist.”
