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Kashmir Harvests Water Chestnuts

KOLHOM, KASHMIR, INDIA - JANUARY 05:A Kashmiri woman squats on short wooden skis, slides called Pachee Khraw Khoor,' as she picks water chestnuts from mud and weed on marsh, they either walk through shallow water and deep, sticky mud on January 05, 2018 in Kolhom, north of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Administered Kashmir, India. Water chestnuts are a major crop for people living near Wular lake , Asia's second largest freshwater lake. Wular, looks more like a flat marshy plain than a large lake in winters, as the water level recedes entire families collect and extract the marble-sized fruit from its spiky casing . The sun-dried chestnuts are later sold in markets, particularly in summer capital city Srinagar, and are consumed raw or roasted and even ground into a flour which locals say has medicinal properties. Its flour is consumed mostly by the people living around the lake. Now it is also in demand for its anti-diabetic properties, and is used by diabetic patients, because it is free of both cholesterol and fat. Some researchers are even investigating whether the fruit has cancer-fighting properties. Six kilograms of the processed stuff, dealers said, is sold at $4.74 (300 INR), and rates go up as the winter progresses. The shells of the chestnuts do not go waste and are used as cooking fuel. The women take care to store them separately, to later use them as fuel in kangris, an earthenware container with an outer encasement of wickerwork, filled with burning coal and normally carried under the clothing for heat in winter months. (Photo by Yawar Nazir/NurPhoto) (Photo by Yawar Nazir/NurPhoto)

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