Kashmir's rare snowless winter sets off alarm bells

 

By Auqib Javeed

Srinagar, Kashmir

In his 17 years of managing a hotel in Gulmarg, a picturesque town in Indian-administered Kashmir, Manzoor Ahmad has never seen a season without snow.

But this year, things are different: the snow-clad mountains in the region are oddly brown and barren.

"This is unprecedented," Mr Ahmad, 50, says, and adds that tourists have stopped making reservations at his hotel.