Nature As Therapy: Inside Kashmir's Unspoken Mental Health Movement

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
A trekking guide cooking outside a the tent pitched by trekkers

By Muneer Ahmed Gashi

Every morning, just after the sun lifts over the Zabarwan hills, a group of young men and women gather by the banks of Dal Lake. Some come with bicycles and mats. Others with nothing at all.

They don't talk much. Instead, they sit facing the water, listening to the sound of paddles cutting through the lake's soft surface. It's not a class. There's no teacher. Just the lake, the sky, and an agreement to be present.

Kashmir, long known for its beauty, is becoming something else too. A kind of natural therapy room. Not everyone calls it ecotherapy. Some just say,“Let's go to the hills.”

But the idea is the same: being in nature helps. And here, there's no shortage of nature to turn to.

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The rise in mental health issues is no longer a whisper. In India, the 2015–16 National Mental Health Survey found that nearly 14 out of every 100 people suffer from some form of mental disorder.

That was before the pandemic, before the lockdowns, before screens became not just a habit but a refuge and a trap.

Today, there are more phones than toilets in the country. A child might spend five to six hours a day on a device and still feel alone. An adult might scroll through a lunch break and wonder why they feel restless by dinner.

And yet, less than one in ten Indians who need mental health support get it. In Kashmir, where access to therapists is even harder, people are turning to what's always been around them: mountains, lakes, trees.

It's not a new idea. The Mughals, centuries ago, built gardens here for peace, not power.

Shalimar Bagh, with its flowing water channels and symmetrical flowerbeds, wasn't just about design. It was about stillness. They would walk through Nishat Bagh after prayer. They would float on Dal Lake during the golden hour. They knew something we're now remembering.

There's science to back it. Researchers in Japan call it shinrin-yoku, or“forest bathing.”

Studies show that spending even 20 minutes in a natural setting can lower cortisol, the body's main stress hormone. It can improve mood, slow the heart rate, and boost serotonin – the chemical that helps us feel stable and happy.

One paper in Biological Psychiatry found that walking in green areas even changes how parts of the brain linked to depression behave.

But numbers don't do justice to what it feels like to walk in the meadows of Bangus, where horses graze and clouds touch the grass. Or to hike the path to Tarsar Lake, where snowmelt collects like a sapphire in a stone bowl. Or to sit alone under a Chinar tree in Dachigam National Park, and watch a hangul deer, rare and watchful, disappear into the woods.

Suhail Ahmad, 27, used to spend his nights glued to his phone, doomscrolling in the dark.“I felt tired all the time,” he said.“I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't thinking clearly.” A friend invited him on a trek to Warwan Valley. No signal. No noise. Just five days of walking, talking, and staring at stars.“I cried the third night,” he said.“Not from sadness. Just from feeling something again.”

It's not always dramatic. Often, it's an unspoken feeling. A woman in Srinagar wakes early to walk in the Botanical Garden, past flowering rhododendrons. She doesn't call it therapy. She calls it her“morning check-in.” A shopkeeper in Baramulla closes early once a week to visit Manasbal Lake with his father. They fish. They barely speak. They always come back lighter.

Doctors are beginning to notice. Some are cautiously recommending time in nature alongside medication. A few therapists are experimenting with group walks, especially with teenagers.“They open up more under trees than under ceilings,” one counselor said.

Of course, not everyone can get to a lake or a mountain. Some don't feel safe. Others have work that won't wait. That's why some ecotherapy advocates are trying to make green spaces more accessible. The Srinagar Municipal Corporation recently opened up parts of Nishat Bagh for early morning walkers, with fewer restrictions and no entry fees during certain hours. It's a small step. But it matters.

Then there are the questions that follow. Can nature really help if someone is facing deep trauma? Is it a treatment or a privilege? What about the people who live in these areas? Are they also healing, or simply hosting?

There's no single answer. But there's a pattern. People who spend time in natural spaces report better sleep, fewer headaches, more energy. Their screen time goes down, not because they're forced to disconnect, but because they're finally connecting, with the earth, with others, with themselves.

In a region that's seen conflict and curfews, Kashmir's landscape remains a soft place to land. A place where a phone's silence doesn't feel like loss. Where healing doesn't begin with a diagnosis but with a step outside.

Near the banks of Nigeen Lake, as the light fades and the willows bend with the breeze, a man stands still with his eyes closed. He isn't praying. He isn't posing. He's just breathing. And for now, that's enough.

• The author is a psychology enthusiast based in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir.

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