A typical day for 60-year-old Sarwar Jahan started with feeding her cattle and goat before turning to household chores. Her husband, Qayam Din, then took the livestock out for grazing in their fenced village of Keerni — one of many hamlets severely affected by the decades-old cross-border conflict in the north-western region of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir.

That the fields are fraught with the fatal risk of stray anti-personnel mine exploding beneath his feet never deterred Din from taking his animals out to pasture. After all, the livestock was the family’s major source of livelihood. But the recent floods that battered the State changed all this overnight, leaving the family destitute.

“We were completely unprepared. My family made every effort to save the animals, but were no match for the floodwaters. We had just two cows. One died and the other is gravely injured. Our one goat also died. Our house, livestock and fields are entirely gone,” says their son, Nazam Din Mir, a social activist in the region. He had watched in sheer helplessness, along with his family and thousands of other households, as their belongings were swept away.

Almost every family in the rural belt of Poonch District shares the same grief as Nazam’s. “In our villages, we do small-scale farming and rear livestock — just enough for our survival. Unlike in cities, we do not buy milk, butter, curd from outside. Our livestock meets our dairy needs, helping us save on our monthly expenses. But now, our loss is enormous,” explains Qayam Din.

“A man in my village lost his entire herd of 18 buffaloes,” narrates Ajaz ul Haq of Surankote. With each buffalo priced above ₹50,000, the household may never recover from this economic devastation.

With buffaloes, goats and sheep dead in large numbers, the nauseating stench is a constant reminder of the loss and, worse, of the threats ahead.

“Our priority will be to slowly get our lives back on track, starting with repairing damaged structures and reworking the fields. We cannot even think of buying new animals. Although we are getting relief in the form of ration and compensation for damaged structures, there has been no compensation for the loss of livestock and crops from either the State or the Centre,” rues Niaz Ahmed, also of Surankote village.

According to a top official, the State is slated to submit to the Centre a memorandum of losses amounting to ₹1 lakh crore in the wake of the colossal damage to property and more than 280 deaths resulting from the flood.

Chief Secretary Muhammad Iqbal Khanday, while addressing the media for the first time after the floods, had said that a total of 5,642 villages were affected, with 800 remaining submerged for over two weeks, wrecking the lives of 12.5 lakh families. The livestock casualty is equally staggering: 10,050 milch animals dead, alongside 33,000 sheep and goats. Damage to agricultural crops has been estimated at ₹4,043 crore, and horticultural crops at ₹1,568 crore. A total of 6.51 lakh hectares were affected.

So far, no compensation has been announced for the damaged crops and livestock, even after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited the district and declared that the government would relax norms to compensate for the extensive loss of life, livestock and property.

“People in the Valley are demanding compensation for damaged crops. Here, in Poonch, we are expecting compensation for the loss of livestock. We are living in the hope that our government will understand our dependency on livestock and crops, and save us from a starvation-like situation,” said Nazam Din Mir.

The writer is a media fellow with National Foundation of India and works with Charkha Development Communication Network

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