Prosperity was the hallmark of this historic locale, known world-wide for its saffron cultivation, until incessant torrential rains changed its appearance. The once-bustling town, 12 kilometers south of Srinagar, looks like a war-ravaged territory. Scores of houses have collapsed and many more are at the verge. Marketplaces are wearing a deserted look and a perpetual pall of gloom has descended on every habitant's face.
On September 8, the town was completely submerged when roaring Jhelum river arbitrarily breached Srinagar-Jammu National Highway and deluged the entire town inhabited mostly on the right bank. Pampore is known for its bals, the Kashmiri word for ghats and every quarter of the town bears its name on these platforms where people wash clothes and fetch water from the river. From letrabal through Kadlabal, Namlabal, Drangbal and Frastabal, every nook and cranny was inundated.
“This is the worst flood I have ever witnessed. In a matter of minutes our house was engulfed by water and every exit route was blocked,” recalled 75-year-old Ghulam Rasool Bassu. He said that in 1950, flood fury had forced them to leave their house but water levels receded shortly after wetting the peripheries of their houses.
Bassu says he and his ailing wife were helped out by a group of army men who sailed them to safety in their boats. A group of nine local volunteers risked their lives to salvage scores of people marooned in their houses on the fateful day.
"There was a time when we could see only the rooftops of a few houses. The town was leveled by Jhelum's waters", said Niyaz Ahmad Bhat, a trader whose palatial house, built three kilometers away from the river bank got submerged. "It was not in our wildest of dreams that our houses would be inundated", Bhat who remained stranded in his water-logged house for three days before rescuers rowed him to safety, told The Pioneer.
The centuries of saffron cultivation, one of the rare cash crops in Kashmir, has the main reason for the town's prosperity. Though, the flood water has spared most of the saffron plateau, many growers and traders lost the dried condiment or the assortment of tools required for its refinement and trade.
Most of the Pampore residents are traders who have diversified from saffron business. "The lines of shops have turned into ruins. Everything inside the shops has decomposed", said Ghulam Hassan, a garment seller.