Srinagar, Sept. 19 -- By Mauzam Bakshi

Recent sightings in Gurez and the Lidder Valley suggest that the Vuder, the Kashmiri otter, still survives in some of the valley's waters.

The animal never asked for a perfect Kashmir. It lives on fish, healthy riverbanks, shelter and undisturbed habitat, and it moves along waterways that connect, so its presence gives away a great deal.

Wherever it lives, those conditions still exist, which makes each sighting a statement about the water as much as about the species.

Gurez and the Lidder Valley look like fragments of the valley's original freshwater world, and the Vuder is the evidence that they still function.

The rest of the valley reads differently. Wetlands shrank, natural channels were alt...