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COVER STORY |
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on River Kishanganga |
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The people of Tithwal are reaping the fruits of peace and development |
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By Pravin
Sawhney and Ghazala Wahab |
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Tithwal: Sometimes life does spring out of the rubble, especially in the remote expanse of the Himalayas where memories and myths tell stories of miracles that challenge rationalism and pragmatism but not faith. And it is faith, egged on by commitment that saw the rebirth of Tithwal, the final outpost so to speak, on the Indian side of Kashmir.
Reduced to a heap of stones after the October 2005 earthquake which levelled many Kashmiri villages on both sides of the Line of Control, Tithwal, on the banks of Kishanganga river which impishly turns into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir a little ahead of this border village, has risen like a proverbial Phoenix. Adopted by the Indian Army at the cost of Rs eight crore after the earthquake, the stones were painstakingly put together once again to rebuild what is now a model village, complete with a school and a community welfare centre housing an auditorium, a workshop for women and a gymnasium.
The Tithwal model village, overlooking its sister village in POK is almost like a window into Kashmir. Both villages were wiped out after the earthquake, but while Tithwal was resurrected in no time at the initiative of the Indian Army, its counterpart on the west bank of Kishanganga still bears several scars of the earthquake.
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An Indian Army officer, who also looks after the village says, “While our focus was to rebuild the village as soon as possible and help people get back on their feet, the focus on the other side was on building their defences and the military structures. The people were left to fend for themselves.”
Even if this was not said, it was evident. The village in POK is so close that one feels like a voyeur looking across. Many houses don’t have the front walls and one could see women doing household chores, putting the clothes out for drying and men sitting and chatting over probably cups of tea. Interspersed with the houses one could see Pakistani soldiers, not always conspicuous. It was both fascinating as well as a bit disconcerting to see such stark difference on two sides, given that some could be the same families divided by an invisible line. |
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January 2012
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