{"id":20124437,"date":"2023-11-30T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T04:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=124437"},"modified":"2023-11-29T23:31:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T18:01:06","slug":"pakistans-indigenous-community-left-to-battle-disasters-with-conventional-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/pakistans-indigenous-community-left-to-battle-disasters-with-conventional-wisdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan\u2019s indigenous community left to battle disasters by drawing on conventional wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The indigenous Kalash community has thrived for centuries in the valleys of Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, drawing the world\u2019s attention with its colourful festivals and polytheist traditions. Numbering 3,000 to 5,000 people living in Chitral district, the Kalash are reeling<\/a> from the impacts of climate change. Those impacts have accelerated here during the past decade, many of them exacerbated by excessive deforestation in these very valleys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are the Kalash?<\/span>
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Residing in the remote Rumbur,<\/a> Birir and Bumburet valleys of the Hindu Kush mountain range in Chitral district, the Kalash or Kalasha community is Pakistan\u2019s smallest<\/a> ethnoreligious minority group. The Kalash preserve an ancient way of life, including animist beliefs. In 1959, the Kalash population in Pakistan\u2019s northern areas was estimated at 10,000. Today, the population is less than half that figure, largely as a result of conversions to Islam. The Kalash are largely shepherds and farmers, and a few own local businesses.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\"women<\/div>
Kalash women skilfully crafting baskets woven from twigs (Image: Fawad Ali)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hit by floods and accelerated warming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Noor Shahidin, a 60-year-old former landowner who now works at a guest house, hails from the indigenous Kalash community. One of many Kalasha who have lost their lands, he recalls the string of floods in the Bumburet valley since 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chitral was hit by flash floods in 2010<\/a>, 2011<\/a>, 2013<\/a> 2015<\/a>, 2020<\/a>, 2022<\/a> and 2023.<\/a> The successive disasters hit Kalash livelihoods hard: for centuries, the majority has relied on farming, tending to orchards, and herding as the primary sources of income.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahidin lost his two acres of fertile land in Bumburet \u2013 including 40 walnut trees \u2013 to the 2015 floods. \u201cWe used to have enough dry fruit, wheat and corn for the whole year. Now, I buy all these things,\u201d he tells The Third Pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once a serene village with a tranquil stream winding through lush green fields, Bumburet is now marred by heaps of rubble and colossal boulders. They serve as a haunting reminder of the natural disaster that reshaped this landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prince<\/div>
In 2019 the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge walked among flood-damaged ruins in Chitral\u2019s Bumburet village, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, during a royal visit to Pakistan (Image: Neil Hall \/ Alamy)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople who lost their lands are forced to buy food,\u201d says Saifullah Jan Kalash, an environmental activist residing in Rumbur valley. \u201cThose who lost their herd have to buy milk, and those who lost their orchards are now going to cities in search of employment to pay for these necessities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, the annual mean temperature in Chitral rose by 0.9C between 1991 and 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n