Srinagar, July 7 -- A doctor at Government Medical College Srinagar put it plainly to a local reporter recently: diabetes in Kashmir is turning into an epidemic.

The numbers back him up.

The sixth National Family Health Survey, conducted through 2023 and 2024, found that 13 percent of women and 11.3 percent of men across Jammu and Kashmir now live with high blood sugar or take medicine to control it. Four years earlier, those figures sat at 8.7 percent and 8 percent.

Beyond a gentle drift, it is a jump, and it tells you something has changed in how this region eats, moves, and ages.

Blood pressure tells the same story. Among women, elevated readings climbed from 20 percent to 25 percent in just one survey cycle. Obesity moved even fas...