Published On:Saturday, 18 October 2014
Rare manuscripts, books damaged
Flood devastation
SRINAGAR: Sri Pratap Singh (SPS) Library, one of the oldest libraries in Kashmir valley has been badly hit by last month’s floods as over 20 thousand books including some rare books have got damaged by the floodwaters.
On September 7, after days of heavy rains, Jhelum was flowing at a furious pace breaching its banks at many places. The flood rwaters entered into many localities and damaged property worth to thousands of crores.
However, a huge damage was witnessed to various private and government libraries in the city as well.
Among many such libraries is the SPS Library situated at Jhelum Bank in Lal Mandi opposite to the Bund. SPS library which housed 45000 books including some rare and old books before floods today remains one of the most affected libraries in Kashmir valley. “SPS library remained submerged under floodwater for weeks due to which over 20, 000 books as per our preliminary reports have got damaged in the library,” said Chief Librarian of SPS Library, Ishrat Majeed.
The floodwaters have also damaged around a 100 rare books in the SPS library published in different languages particularly English, Urdu and Persian. “Out of 200 rare books, 100 books have got damaged due to floodwaters,” the SPS Chief Librarian told Kashmir Monitor adding that “Some rare books in Persian and Urdu in the library have got damaged by the flood waters which is impossible to get back.”
Almost half of the book shelves in the SPS library on first floor were submerged under water. Also a part of the library building is about to collapse, the officials said. “We are on the job to clean the rot now and are making the list of books which have remained unaffected but there is a huge risk as well because a part of the building is about to collapse,” employees in the SPS library told Kashmir Monitor.
However they said, they were able to save some rare books.
