{"id":13931,"date":"2026-03-05T21:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/?p=13931"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:00:17","slug":"river-jhelum-at-historic-low-this-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/river-jhelum-at-historic-low-this-march\/","title":{"rendered":"River Jhelum at historic low this March"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u2018Deficient snowfall may affect paddy nursery preparation this season\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Srinagar, Mar 05: The water level in Jhelum River has dropped below the zero-gauge mark in the first week of March, an unusual development that experts say could signal stress for Kashmir\u2019s upcoming paddy cultivation season.<\/p>\n<p>According to official flood control data, the river was flowing at minus 0.86 feet at Sangam in south Kashmir at 9 am on Thursday, indicating discharge below the zero level \u2014 a rare occurrence for this time of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Faizan Arif, an independent weather forecaster who runs \u2018Kashmir Weather\u2019, said the low-level points to deficient winter precipitation and poor snow accumulation in the higher reaches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEarly March usually sees better flow due to gradual snowmelt. This year, despite warm spells in February, the rise in water level was brief and weak,\u201d Arif told the news agency\u2014Kashmir News Observer (KNO). \u201cHistorically, such temperature spikes would push the river up by several feet. That response was missing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said temperatures in February remained above normal on several occasions, at times crossing the average by a significant margin. While the warmth triggered some melt, the limited snowpack meant there was little sustained discharge into the river system.<\/p>\n<p>Agriculture experts and farmers expressed concern that if the trend continues, it may affect irrigation during the crucial nursery preparation period for paddy, which begins in April.<\/p>\n<p>Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, a farmer from Pulwama district, said water availability during April and May is critical. \u201cWe depend on canals fed by the Jhelum and streams from the mountains. If the water remains low, nursery sowing will be delayed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>An official in the irrigation department said the situation is being monitored. \u201cAt present, there is no immediate crisis, but the trend is not encouraging. If we do not receive adequate rainfall or late snowfall in the coming weeks, it could impact irrigation planning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Jhelum, which flows through the Kashmir Valley and sustains agriculture across several districts, relies heavily on winter snow and spring meltwater. Reduced precipitation this winter has already raised concerns among hydrology experts.<\/p>\n<p>Arif said the coming weeks will be crucial. \u201cIf March brings normal rainfall, some recovery is possible. Otherwise, this could be an early warning for a challenging water year,\u201d he added. (KNO)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Deficient snowfall may affect paddy nursery preparation this season\u2019 Srinagar, Mar 05: The water level in Jhelum River has dropped below the zero-gauge mark in the first week of March, an unusual development that experts say could signal stress for Kashmir\u2019s upcoming paddy cultivation season. According to official flood control data, the river was flowing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news","category-kt-front"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13933,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13931\/revisions\/13933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}