DEAR JOAN: There is something that I have noticed for years, and I finally decided to ask the only expert I know.
At the southbound Thornton Avenue exit to Interstate 880 in Newark, there are some power lines that extend all the way across the freeway. Every time I go that way I see many birds sitting on the lines, but only on the southbound side, never on the other side.
This is not a once-in-a-while thing; I’ve noticed it for many years.
I’ve never seen them fly away, they all just sit there. Can you think of anything special about these particular power lines?
Inquiring minds want to know.
— Sherry Hughes, Newark
DEAR SHERRY: Not being able to read bird minds, or the minds of any living beings, I can’t say for certain, although I’m sure they have an excellent reason. I can, however, list a few possibilities.
First off, birds really like sitting on elevated lines, whether those are power lines, telecommunication wires or cable lines. The high wires provide an excellent vantage point for surveying the area, giving them a bird’s eye view of the territory. From there, they can look around for food and watch out for predators.
The lines are also a convenient spot for taking a rest and as there are other birds on the line, a chance to converse. They come and go as they please, but it’s not likely they would all fly off at once unless something really frightened the entire flock. It might look like the birds sit there all day and night, but it’s a revolving cast.
Such gatherings also provide some communal support and protection from predators, and in the winter, the combined flocks can offer a little extra warmth.
Considering how much power is surging through the lines, we have to wonder how the birds can casually perch on them and avoid electrocution. The answer? Science.
Just like water, and nature itself, electricity seeks a balance. It flows from high energy points to low energy points. A bird sitting on the wire doesn’t interrupt or redirect the flow, but if it was to have one foot on the wire (high energy) and another on the ground (low energy), the electricity would seek to balance, redirecting through the bird to complete the circuit, with deadly consequences. The birds are remarkably exact about the positioning on the lines, keeping a small but equal distance between them, and avoiding touching anything else.
Why the birds choose one wire and not the other most likely has to do with environmental factors. The wind might be stronger on that side, the wires might not provide the same vantage point, or there could be something on that side of the freeway or the lines themselves, that the birds just don’t care for.
The birds like a clear pathway when they fly off the wire, and the ones on the northbound side might be more advantageous.
Wish we knew for certain, but maybe one day the birds will talk.
The Animal Life column runs on Mondays. Contact Joan Morris at AskJoanMorris@gmail.com.
A California man received a mysterious handwritten note on his front door earlier this year—and it’s giving people online chills.
Jacob, who lives near Long Beach, said the note appeared on his door on June 18, left by an elderly man who claimed to have once lived in the same house in the 1980s. The message, written on lined notebook paper and said: “Hello, My name is [redacted]. In the early ’80s, I lived here. Something strange happened in the back bedroom. I was wondering if it still happens. I think it was a ghost.”
The unusual letter continued with the man’s contact details, inviting Jacob to call him “if it still comes.”
Jacob said in the post that the note “gave me the spooks for a couple days,” though he explained that nothing out of the ordinary has happened since he moved in.
“I’ve lived here about two years. No strange or paranormal activity—yet, at least,” Jacob told Newsweek.
Viral Reaction
Months later, Jacob decided to share the eerie encounter on Reddit after discovering the r/Weird subreddit. Just in time for Halloween.
“[I] just thought it was strange but didn’t post it online until I found the r/weird subreddit and thought it could be fitting,” he said.
His post quickly went viral, gaining over 26,000 upvotes and thousands of comments from amused, and occasionally sympathetic, Reddit users.
In the comments, people shared their reactions. “Poor dude has been wondering for decades if that place is as haunted as he remembers. I’d call him up and let him know the presence seems to have moved on, just to give him some peace of mind,” user Platitude_Platypus said.
While UrsusRenata joked: “Ooo, I found a new retirement hobby!”
“The letter was pretty decent and he didn’t do anything creepy, so I would call and tell him that nothing is happening, at least to get it out of his mind,” 1saylor1 said.
Despite its eerie premise, Jacob said the response from strangers has been heartwarming rather than frightening.
“The reaction to the post is awesome,” he said. “Several people have reached out to me believing that the man could be a long lost family member.”
This is not the first time a mysterious note has left a homeowner shocked. Earlier this year, a Gen Z woman found a note outside her home from a “secret admirer” that left her scared to leave the house.
DEAR JOAN: We live in an urban area of San Jose, and sometimes at night hear the hooting of an owl of some sort. Recently we heard that repeated hooting, but interspersed with a call that I can only describe as more like a peacock!
Several hoots, followed by a sort of “waahh” then more hoots. I checked on Bird.net, which told me it’s a great horned owl and that females can make more unusual calls such as the one we heard. Is that true? And, we didn’t know that great horned owls live in urban areas!
— Malcolm Smith, San Jose
DEAR MALCOLM: That’s absolutely true. Great horned owls don’t have the repertoire of a song bird, but they do have some range.
The call of the great horned owl is described as hoo-h’HOO-hoo-hoo, and the female will often add in a one syllable call that is more guttural.
Young owls make a high-pitched demanding squawk when telling their parents they’re hungry. When angry or threatened, the owls make a rapid clicking sound with their beaks.
We have all sorts of wildlife living largely unnoticed in our suburban jungle, which is why it’s important to not do things that might harm them.
DEAR JOAN: One of our cats is a challenge to pill and I have found a different solution that works for us. We have a pill syringe.
We place a pill in the syringe and open our cat’s mouth and with the syringe shoot the pill to the back of the mouth. If you get the pill past the hump of the tongue, the cat has to swallow the pill. The plus to this method is you can’t accidentally put your fingers between the cat’s teeth.
— Scott Gerken, Bay Area
DEAR SCOTT: I’m all for avoiding a cat’s teeth. Thanks for the tip.
DEAR JOAN: Your recent column on a cat not willing to allow flea medication resonated with me.
I needed to figure out a way to trim my cat’s claws without taking her to the vet every time. My cat loves wet food so I put her food into her bowl and immediately grab the trimmer and get to work. I pick up each paw, separate the toes and nip off the sharp ends.
I had to acclimate her to this by rubbing her toes while she scarfed her tasty food. I then started gently getting the trimmer near the claws until I had success. It took about a week but now it’s pretty easy to do.
The wary cat in your column might also benefit from having very tasty kibbles while “mom” gently rubs the spot where flea medication will eventually be applied.
— Celia (and Mimi the cat), Santa Cruz
DEAR CELIA AND MIMI: What a great tip. Thank you.
DEAR JOAN: My technique with my dog is to grind the pill with a mortar and pestle until it is broken down, like fine sand. Then I mix it into wet pet food really well. Usually works really well.
— Steve Kessler, Bay Area
DEAR STEVE: Excellent idea, although I’d check with my vet to see that it’s OK to do that. Some medications are supposed to be given whole.
The Animal Life column runs on Mondays. Contact Joan Morris at AskJoanMorris@gmail.com.
On a quiet street in Wilmette, native plants bloom in broad sweeps and bright bursts, bringing color and life to what was once an ordinary strip of lawn separating the sidewalk from the curb.
The violet blossoms of blue vervain hover above clusters of frosty-white mountain mint, golden lanceleaf coreopsis, orange butterfly weed and pink poppy mallow. Monarch butterflies visit the buffet of pollen and nectar, as do wasps, bees, bugs and moths.
Humans pause as well, with a passing bicyclist turning her head to look and a man in an orange Kia pulling to a full stop.
“Awesome!” the man calls out to Amanda Nugent, who is standing nearby. “Is this your stuff?”
“It is,” Nugent says with a smile.
At a time of growing concern about declines in insect populations, native plants are having a moment, with local fans such as Nugent showcasing them in parkways and front yards and community garden walks featuring them alongside the traditional roses, salvias and lilies.
National trend data isn’t readily available, but the Northern Illinois Native Plant Gardeners Facebook page recently reached 10,000 members, up from 6,000 just two years ago. There’s also the Native Gardening in Illinois group with 6,500 members, and Native Plant Gardens in the Upper Midwest with 24,200 members.
The Chicago garden center Christy Webber reports spring native plant sales have almost doubled since 2023, from about $50,000 to $93,000.
And at the Monee native plant nursery Possibility Place, co-owner Tristan Shaw says his retail operation sold more native plants in the first eight months of 2025 than in all of 2024.
“There’s always been a core of people who have been preaching this (native plant) gospel, but it really just has gone crazy within the last 10 years, and especially within the last three or four,” said Bob Sullivan, an administrator of the Northern Illinois Facebook group.
People are turning to native plants for many reasons, including their natural good looks and low-maintenance profiles. But reports about declines in beneficial insects — including monarch butterflies and the federally endangered rusty patched bumblebee — have played a major role, observers say.
“Native gardening for many people is empowering,” Sullivan said. “It is something they can do that is rewarding, they see immediate benefits, and they’re getting a lot of reinforcement from scientists who are telling them, your yard really can make a difference.”
‘An amazing shift’
Amanda Nugent had always been interested in both gardening and conservation, but she didn’t really appreciate the connection between the two until she read the book “Bringing Nature Home” by University of Delaware entomology professor Doug Tallamy.
Tallamy, a bestselling author and a leader in the native gardening movement, is among the scientists who say that insects — a vital link in the food chain — are in trouble.
An influential 2017 study in the journal PLOS ONE found a 75% decrease in flying insects in German nature preserves over 27 years, and in 2021 the National Academies of Sciences produced a special issue on insect decline, with the authors of one article writing, “Urgent action is needed on behalf of nature.”
Birds, many of which eat insects, are also struggling, with a 2019 report in the journal Science estimating that there were 29% fewer birds in North America than there were in 1970.
Planting natives is a great way to help, Tallamy says. That’s in part because many insects are specialists that evolved to rely on certain naturally occurring plants. Among the better-known examples: Monarch butterflies need milkweed, the only plant their caterpillars will eat.
A male monarch butterfly sits atop a coneflower in Amanda Nugent’s garden in Wilmette on Aug. 25, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Tallamy wants ordinary gardeners to fight back against insect decline by supporting his vision of a 20-million acre “Homegrown National Park.” Roughly the size of Maine, this park-without-boundaries would consist of native plants, shrubs and trees grown on private land by gardeners doing their part to protect and sustain wildlife.
The idea is that as more native gardens join the “park,” they will start to provide continuous habitat for the insects that, in turn, support larger animals such as birds.
“It was a light bulb moment for me,” Nugent said of reading Tallamy’s book. She did some research and got increasingly excited about the ecological potential of her own lawn.
“I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking: What else can I support in my backyard?” she recalled.
Then the pandemic came, the program in which she taught elementary school nature science was canceled, and she found herself with more time on her hands.
Amanda Nugent looks for an endangered rusty patched bumblebee among a grouping of anise hyssop in her parkway garden on Aug. 25, 2025, in Wilmette. She spotted the rare bumblebee last week among the more than three dozen varieties of bees and wasps in her gardens. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
She started her parkway garden, her first big native plant “experiment,” with a 4-by-4-foot bed between the sidewalk and the street. Every few weeks, the garden doubled in size. Today, it’s about 20 feet long, with natives flourishing alongside pollinator-friendly cultivars, or variations developed by humans.
Nugent also tore up half her front lawn and added a big bed of natives, and she shrunk the lawn in her backyard as much as she could.
Having basically run out of space for additional plants at home, she started a new career as a wildlife-friendly landscape designer.
Nugent has gone further than many native plant enthusiasts, but her journey reflects broader trends
Attitudes toward natives have shifted in recent years, according to Aster Hasle, a lead conservation ecologist at the Field Museum.
Hasle, who has studied how Chicago-area gardens can best support monarchs, points to the milkweed plant, once dismissed as a “highway weed.”
Today, milkweed is probably better known as “the monarch butterfly plant,” according to Hasle, who uses they/them pronouns.
“That’s an amazing shift,” they said.
An endangered rusty patched bumblebee forages on a stem of anise hyssop in Amanda Nugent’s parkway garden in Wilmette on Aug. 25, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Among the factors involved: In 2017 the rusty patched bumblebee — still seen in the Upper Midwest — became the first bumblebee to be granted federal endangered status. The buzz around the bee’s decline helped raise awareness of the plight of insects in general.
Hasle also points to broader public use of natives in public spaces, including in the Chicago Park District’s natural areas initiative, which now covers about 2,000 acres.
Hasle remembers a time when natives were hidden away in obscure places or placed behind shrubbery. Now native plants are highlighted — with, say, boardwalks for better viewing — and that sends a message, Hasle said.
“If it’s in the park, then it’s kind of like the government gave it its stamp of approval,” they said.
Similarly, the Field Museum installed its own large, colorful and prominently situated Rice Native Gardens, starting in 2016.
“I don’t think there was a moment when people said, ‘Oh, yeah, native plants are great.’ It’s been a lot of small shifts,” Hasle said.
Insects win fans
Chicagoan Loyda Paredes was just looking for plants that would do well in her yard.
By chance, the plants she found 10 years ago on an online store included native cultivars.
Then, over the years, as she experimented in her garden, learned from her local garden club, joined more Facebook groups, and read articles people recommended, she got interested in native plants themselves.
Being out in her garden and seeing the insects it supports has shifted her outlook, too.
“You start to learn,” said Paredes, a real estate agent. “It isn’t just the monarchs and bumblebees — there’s all these other insects that are beneficial and important and interesting.”
Paredes now has about 30 species of native plants growing in the front yard of her Northwest Side bungalow.
She has spotted a Carolina mantis on her property. But the eye-popping hummingbird moth, which does indeed look like a melding of the two creatures it’s named for, has (so far) eluded her.
“I’ve only seen videos,” she said.
A ailanthus webworm moth on mountain mint in Amanda Nugent’s garden in Wilmette on Aug. 25, 2025. Nugent remarked, “These moths are good pollinators and their bright colorings are a warning to possible predators to indicate that they taste bad (like monarchs), because of the leaves that the caterpillars eat.” (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Oak Park resident Judy Klem’s roots in native gardening go back further, but over time she, too, has leaned into the wildlife aspect.
Klem’s four children, now in their teens and early 20s, were still very young when she decided low-maintenance native plants were a good choice, given the demands on her time. She also wanted a pesticide-free yard that was great for the environment.
And she was inspired by Chicago’s influential Lurie Garden, which opened in 2004. The high-profile garden in Millennium Park has a naturalistic look and includes many native plants.
“They definitely turned the concept of a public garden up on its end,” said Klem, a nonprofit executive. “Once Lurie Garden demonstrated, ‘Here’s what you can do with a public space and look, it’s attracting all these interesting birds and butterflies,’ it was like, ‘Ooooh! I want some of that.’”
As time went on, Klem became more interested in the wildlife her garden sustains, including goldfinches, butterflies and bees.
Today, she keeps binoculars in the kitchen, so family members can enjoy backyard highlights such as a recent two-week visit by a fledgling cardinal.
“It was like this entertainment show in the backyard,” Klem said of the cardinal’s sojourn. “We were all sending pictures to the whole-family chat.”
Hopes and fears
During a tour of her garden, Nugent pointed out one insect after another.
There were the big black wasps, surprisingly striking with their iridescent blue sheen. There was the fluffy yellow and black bumblebee with bright orange “pollen baskets” on her hind legs.
“They’ll collect all this pollen on their bellies and fur and then at some point they’ll rest and use their legs to kind of rub it and collect it down into their pollen baskets, and pack it down,” Nugent said.
A great black wasp, a type of digger wasp, walks on a non-native ornamental onion in Amanda Nugent’s garden in Wilmette on Aug. 25, 2025. While Nugent’s gardens are mostly filled with native plants, Nugent says she plants the onion “to thwart the serious bunny population.” (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
A hummingbird moth appeared as if on cue; an ailanthus webworm moth with jewel-like orange and white patterns running down its back crawled onto Nugent’s finger. A pair of fierce-looking ambush bugs mated on a boneset plant.
During a recent group tour of Nugent’s gardens, a black swallowtail emerged from its chrysalis, the hard covering that protects the insect as it transforms into a butterfly.
“That’s my favorite part: that there’s magic happening all the time — if we just look for it,” Nugent said.
Gardening with a purpose comes with its own pressures. Nugent said she worries that native plants aren’t catching on fast enough to head off the decline of insects.
“But then I spend the time in my yard, or my clients’ yards, and I see all the ‘buzz’ and I think, it’s all OK. And then I get hopeful,” she said.
Milwaukee tools are on sale at Amazon now, before Prime Day 2023 even begins. Milwaukee is a trusted brand known for its durable and innovative power tools, catering to both home hobbyists and professionals. With a wide range of high-performance products, these tools prioritize user satisfaction and productivity through advanced technology and ergonomic design.
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Jennifer Martin is an expert on streaming and deals for CBS Essentials. She has a soft spot for foodie culture, beauty and wellness products and all things pop culture. Jennifer lives in Richmond, VA with her family of five, plus a cat, a dog and a frog.
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The Best Dyson vacuum deals for Memorial Day
Need a new vacuum? Dyson is one of the best brands for a reason. Check out these deals on Dyson vacuums below.
Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute cordless stick vacuum
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Dyson Purifier Cool TP07 purifying fan
Dyson
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Jennifer Martin is an expert on streaming and deals for CBS Essentials. She has a soft spot for foodie culture, beauty and wellness products and all things pop culture. Jennifer lives in Richmond, VA with her family of five, plus a cat, a dog and a frog.
LOS ANGELES — A coyote ambushed and injured a 2-year old girl outside her Los Angeles home in a daytime attack before her father chased the animal off, her family said.
Home security video obtained by KTLA-TV shows the animal grab and drag the toddler across her lawn and sidewalk, just seconds after her father took her out of a car seat, set her down and turned back inside the vehicle to gather her toys. They had just arrived home from her preschool.
He heard the girl screaming on the other side of the SUV, then realized she was being attacked by what appeared to be a coyote. The father, Ariel Eliyahuo, shouted and charged at the animal, causing it to release the girl, pause briefly a short distance away, then scamper off.
The girl suffered scratches and bruises in the Friday attack and was treated at an emergency room, where she received the rabies vaccine.
“She has a lot of scratches on her left leg and one of them is really deep,” her mother, Shira Eliyahuo, told KTLA. “The coyote just kind of dragged her so her face is also a little bit bruised.”
Coyotes are familiar sights in many Los Angeles neighborhoods, though attacks on people are rare.
BEIRUT — Syria’s largest Palestinian camp was once bustling with activity: It was crowded with mini-buses and packed with shops hawking falafel, shawarma and knafeh nabulsieh — a sweet concoction of cheese and phyllo dough.
Kids played soccer and brandished plastic guns until men with real guns came in when Syria descended into civil war. Over the past decade, fighting devastated communities across the country, including the Yarmouk camp, on the outskirts of the capital of Damascus.
Today, Yarmouk’s streets are still piled with rubble. Scattered Palestinian flags fly from mostly abandoned houses, the only reminder that this was once a major political and cultural center of the Palestinian refugee diaspora.
Two years ago, Syrian authorities began allowing former Yarmouk residents who could prove home ownership and pass a security check to come back.
But so far, few have returned. Many others have been deterred by fear they could be arrested or conscripted by force. Others no longer have houses to come back to. Still, with the fighting having subsided in much of Syria, some want to see what’s left of their homes.
Earlier this month, the government opened up Yarmouk for a rare visit by journalists to highlight its push for returnees. The occasion: the launch of a new community center, built by a non-government organization.
One of those who have returned is Mohamed Youssef Jamil. Originally from the Palestinian village of Lubya, west of the city of Tiberias in present-day Israel, he had lived in Yarmouk since 1960. He raised three sons in the camp, before Syria’s war broke out.
The 80-year-old came back a year and a half ago, with government approval to repair his damaged house. Of the 30 or 40 families who used to live on his street, there are now four. Many buildings that were not leveled by bombs were looted, stripped of windows, electric wiring — even faucets.
“I’m staying here to guard it from thieves,” he said of his home.
Nearby, the right half of Mohamed Taher’s house has collapsed, while he is repairing the still-standing left half. “There is no electricity,” the 55-year-old said, though in some parts of the camp there is water and the sewer system works.
Yarmouk was built in 1957 as a Palestinian refugee camp but grew into a vibrant suburb that also attracted working-class Syrians. Before the 2011 uprising turned civil war, some 1.2 million people lived in Yarmouk, including 160,000 Palestinians, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA.
As of June, some 4,000 people returned to Yarmouk, UNRWA said, while another 8,000 families received permission to return over the summer.
The returnees struggle with a “lack of basic services, limited transportation, and largely destroyed public infrastructure,” UNRWA said. Some live in houses without doors or windows.
The U.N. agency said returns to Yarmouk increased, in part, because the camp offered free housing. At a recent press conference, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said an increasing number of Palestinian refugees in Syria are “basically going back into rubble just because they cannot afford anymore to live where they were.”
In the past, Palestinian factions in Syria sometimes had a complicated relationship with Syrian authorities. Former Syrian President Hafez Assad and Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat were bitter adversaries.
However, Palestinian refugees lived in relative comfort in Syria, with greater socioeconomic and civil rights than those in neighboring Lebanon.
Yarmouk’s Palestinian factions tried to remain neutral as Syria’s civil war broke out, but by late 2012, the camp was pulled into the conflict and different factions took opposing sides in the war.
The militant group Hamas backed the Syrian the opposition while others, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine–General Command, fought on the Syrian government’s side.
In 2013, Yarmouk became the target of a devastating siege by government forces. In 2015, it was taken over by the extremist Islamic State group. A government offensive retook the camp in 2018, emptying it of remaining inhabitants.
Sari Hanafi, a professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut who grew up in Yarmouk, said those returning are doing so because of “absolute necessity.”
“The others who don’t return — it’s because it’s an unlivable place,” he said.
A young man from Yarmouk living in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon agrees. With Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government still firmly in place, he said that if he went back, he “would always be living in anxiety and without security.”
“Someone who returns to the camp, or to Syria in general, is no longer thinking, ‘How much freedom will I have?’ He is thinking, ‘I just want a house to live in,’” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, fearing for the safety of his relatives back in Syria.
At the community center’s opening, the governor of Damascus, Mohamed Tarek Kreishati, promised to clear the rubble and restore utilities and public transportation.
But there’s a long way to go to convince people to go back, said Mahmoud Zaghmout from the London-based Action Group for Palestinians of Syria, aligned with the Syrian opposition.
Yarmouk lacks “hospitals, bakeries, gas distribution centers and basic consumer and food items,” Zaghmout said.
There are those who hope Yarmouk will be restored to its past glory, like Suheil Natour, a Lebanon-based researcher and member of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
He pointed to Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camp Ein el-Hilweh, which was razed by Israeli forces in 1982 and later rebuilt. Yarmouk can also be “one day a very flourishing symbol of revival of the Palestinian refugees,” he said.
Others are skeptical. Samih Mahmoud, 24, who grew up in Yarmouk but now lives in Lebanon, said not much remains of the place he remembered.
He said he’s not attached to the buildings and streets of Yarmouk. “I’m attached to the people, to the food, to the atmosphere of the camp,” he said. “And all of that is gone.”
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Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Omar Akour in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
SRINAGAR, India — A multi-screen cinema hall opened on Saturday in the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir for the first time in 14 years in the government’s push to showcase normalcy in the disputed region that was brought under India’s direct rule three years ago.
Decades of a deadly conflict, bombings and brutal Indian counterinsurgency campaign have turned people away from cinemas, and only about a dozen viewers lined up for the first morning show, the Bollywood action movie “Vikram Vedha.” The 520-seat hall with three screens opened under elaborate security in Srinagar’s high security zone that also houses India’s military regional headquarters.
“There are different viewpoints about (cinema) but I think it’s a good thing,” said moviegoer Faheem, who gave only one name. “It’s a sign of progress.”
Others at the show declined to comment.
The afternoon and evening shows had less than 10% occupancy on Saturday, according to India’s premier movie booking website in.bookmyshow.com.
The multiplex was officially inaugurated on Sept. 20 by Manoj Sinha, New Delhi’s top administrator in Kashmir. The cinema is part of Indian multiplex chain Inox in partnership with a Kashmiri businessman.
After Kashmiri militants rose up against Indian rule in 1989, launching a bloody insurgency that was met with a brutal response by Indian troops, the once-thriving city of Srinagar wilted. The city’s eight privately owned movie theaters closed on the orders of rebels, saying they were vehicles of India’s cultural invasion and anti-Islamic.
In the early 1990s, government forces converted most of the city’s theaters into makeshift security camps, detention or interrogation centers. Soon, places where audiences thronged to Bollywood blockbusters became feared buildings, where witnesses say torture was commonplace.
However, three cinema halls, backed by government financial assistance, reopened in 1999 amid an official push to project the idea that life had returned to normal in Kashmir. Soon after, a bombing outside one hall in the heart of Srinagar killed a civilian and wounded many others and shut it again. Weary Kashmiris largely stayed away, and the other hall locked its doors within a year. One theater, the Neelam, stuck it out until 2008.
Officials said the government is planning to establish cinemas in every district of the region, where tens of thousands have been killed in the armed conflict since 1989. Last month, Sinha also inaugurated two multipurpose halls in the southern districts of Shopian and Pulwama, considered as hotbeds of armed rebellion.
“The government is committed to change perceptions about Jammu and Kashmir, and we know people want entertainment and they want to watch movies,” Sinha told reporters at the inauguration.
In 2019, India revoked the region’s semi-autonomy and brought it under direct control, throwing Kashmir under a severe security and communication lockdown.
The region has remained on edge ever since as authorities also put in place a slew of new laws, which critics and many residents fear could change the region’s demographics.
