Srinagar, Nov. 9 -- When a chinar falls, Kashmir loses more than a tree. It loses a witness to its history, a mark of its landscape and a piece of its collective memory. The decision to digitally map thousands of chinars is, therefore, not merely an administrative exercise, it is an attempt to protect a living inheritance before more of it disappears.

For generations, the chinar has occupied a place in Kashmir that no other tree has. It stands in the courtyards of shrines, along roads, beside water bodies and in the heart of villages. It has offered shade to travellers, shelter to gatherings and a sense of continuity through periods of change and uncertainty. Long before photographs and tourism brochures made the chinar a symbol of Kashm...