In Jammu and Kashmir, Citizens Are Getting Together To Protect Disappearing Wetlands scroll.in

It was a cigarette butt that turned Tariq’s life around. Tariq A Patloo remembers the moment like it were yesterday. “I was taking a German tourist through one of our canals,” Patloo said. “He had a smoke but did not throw the cigarette out. ‘It will poison the water’ he remarked and kept it with him.”