Srinagar, Oct. 8 -- Long before expressions such as climate change, ecological degradation and sustainability entered public discourse, Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani (RA), known as Sheikh ul Alam or Nund Rishi, was speaking about humanity's relationship with the natural world. His short, powerful shruks were not environmental treatises, yet they carried ideas of interdependence, restraint and compassion that remain strikingly relevant today.

As Kashmir confronts mounting pressure on its forests, water resources, wetlands, farmland and biodiversity, his words deserve to be heard not as spiritual poetry from a distant past, but as a challenge to the way we relate to the land on which our lives depend. The verse most widely remembered is :

"A...