Srinagar, Sept. 28 -- By Mauzam Bakshi

Srinagar grew around the Jhelum and a web of lakes, wetlands, marshes and channels, and for generations that water did work no machine has been asked to do.

Dal, Anchar, Gilsar, Khushal Sar and Hokersar stored rain, sustained wildlife, tempered local conditions and gave the city somewhere to put its excess.

Orchards, streams and mature trees added their share, and the houses built among them took their form from cold winters and warm summers.

Much of this inheritance survives, but planners still treat it as scenery or vacant land, when it works as a cooling system that conventional infrastructure could replace only at substantial cost.

The Controller and Auditor General of India has documented t...