Chinars turn into blaze, present a magnificent look in Kashmir

November is the only month in the Kashmir valley when thousands of magnificent Chinar trees turn into blaze which presents a look everyone, including foreigners, want to have a glimpse of.

Late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi used to visit the Kashmir Valley every year around this time to watch the fall fire, when the autumn is about to say goodbye to the Valley.

She last came here on October 28, three days before her assassination in 1984.

To watch ''Aatish-e-Chinar''(Chinar on fire) hundreds of tourists from different states are arriving here despite the cold weather. A tourist Ashok Kumar from Delhi, who has been visiting the Kashmir Valley during this period of the season for 20 years now, including militancy years, said tourists visit Kashmir in summer when flowers are everywhere, but they miss this season which is more attractive.

According to Khalid Bashir, a poet and author of several books on Kashmir, centuries ago, the sight must have inspired some visitor to christen its name as 'chinar' (what a fire).

The end of the summer in the Kashmir Valley is the beginning of the glory of Chinar as crimson tinge appears on the green leaves of the tree that catches up with the entire foliage and, by the end of the month, the tree is at its magnificents best.

The breathtaking beauty has to be seen to be believed. Whether in grooves, as in the Naseem Bagh, adjacent to the holy shrine of Hazratbal which houses the holy relic of Prophet Mohammad, on the banks of the Dal Lake or in a solitary posture as on the tip of a rice field in the countryside, the Chinar simply looks gorgeous.

Contrary to all other native plant species whose green leaves turn pale in autumn, become dry and, ultimately, wither, the five lobed Chinar leaves change many colours before they fall.

The deep green colour first turns slightly reddish, then crimson red before it finally turns yellow and falls from the branch only to be collected in heaps and transformed into charcoal for use in Kangris (fire pots with which Kashmiris fight the intense winter).

The spectacle of the Chinar-fire ignites the landscape of the Valley as much as the imagination of those who happen to witness it.

-- (UNI) -- 08DR16.xml

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