Srinagar, June 3 -- The wooden wheel creaks briefly inside a small stone-and-timber structure in Guiwa village of Baramulla. Seventy-two-year-old Abdul Rashid Bhat taps the mill gently as he collects freshly ground rice flour.

"It used to run all day. Now there are days when there isn't enough water to turn the wheel," he said.

For generations, the traditional water mill, locally known as a Gharat'e, was the heartbeat of rural Kashmir. Villagers carried sacks of maize, rice and wheat along narrow footpaths to these mills, where flowing water powered wooden turbines that ground grain into flour.

The mills, which provided an affordable service, stand abandoned, courtesy pollution and water scarcity

"Our village was known for Gharat'e (f...