Srinagar, Sept. 26 -- By Farooq Ahmad Khan

Kashmir has stone in abundance. It lies in the mountains, beside streams and beneath a landscape that has supplied building material for generations.

Families have used it to raise house plinths above damp ground and winter snow. A large house and a modest one may differ greatly in size, but both have traditionally depended on the same basic material.

That ordinary access has become difficult.

Families building or repairing homes have faced a strange contradiction for roughly a decade.

Stone remains plentiful in the landscape, while a truckload can be difficult to secure and painfully expensive at the point of sale.

When a basic building material becomes scarce despite its natural abundance...