Doodhpathri

Doodhpathri, meaning Valley of Milk, is a meadowland in the Khansahib tehsil of Budgam district, at 2,730 metres in the Pir Panjal range and about 42 kilometres from Srinagar. Legend says the Kashmiri saint-poet Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani, looking for water for his prayers, pierced the ground with his stick and milk flowed out; told it could be drunk but not used for ablution, it turned to water. The streams still look milky from afar and stay cold all year.

The valley is a bowl of sloping grassland under snowy mountains, with pine, fir and deodar, and daisies, forget-me-nots and buttercups flower in spring and summer. Heavy snow closes it in winter and nobody lives here permanently, though shepherds from the Budgam plains bring their herds up for about six months each summer. Nearby are Tangnar, Mujpathri on the Shaliganga river, and Palmaidan, a grazing ground strewn with huge stones.