By Dr. Wahied Khawar Balwan

Jammu and Kashmir contains some of the most biologically diverse terrain in India, stretching from subtropical foothills near Jammu to alpine meadows above Gulmarg and high-altitude cold deserts near Kargil. 

Snow leopards, Himalayan black bears, musk deer, and dozens of migratory bird species move through this terrain within a single academic year. 

Most zoology students at government colleges in the region still encounter them only through printed diagrams and decades-old specimens preserved in formalin jars. 

This disparity between the classroom and the landscape outside it explains why the National Education Policy of 2020 counts so much here, and why its success or failure will show up first in places like Doda, Kupwara, and Poonch rather than in Delhi’s planning documents.

The policy calls for multidisciplinary, experiential education built around fieldwork, research, and practical skill development rather than memorisation. Zoology departments in Jammu and Kashmir have an unusual advantage in meeting that call. 

Their campuses lie inside living laboratories. A college in Doda can send students to document bird populations along the Chenab within walking distance of the lecture hall. A department in Baramulla can study wetland ecology at Wular Lake without arranging transport beyond the district. 

Few regions in the country can turn a biodiversity survey into a same-day field exercise the way........

© Kashmir Observer