Srinagar, Aug. 27 -- The future of Charar-e-Sharief should not be based on uncontrolled urban expansion, but rather on carefully controlled growth which safeguards its sacred heart, rehabilitates its delicate ecosystem and establishes a resilient pilgrimage economy. Charar-e-Sharief is not just another settlement that is expanding in the Kashmir Valley; its origins, shape and current development are fundamentally connected with its religious identity. Situated in the Karewa area of Budgam, the town has developed around the shrine of Hazrat Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani, the fourteenth-century founder of Kashmir's Rishi-Sufi tradition. As time has passed, a small religious community has grown into a major pilgrimage centre, drawing in residen...