Aziz, a village man from Kuragh, Upper Chitral remembers his father telling them that the mountain stood high to tell them their limit as human being, and plants in the mountains nurtured both good and bad spirits. “When I was a child, I remember grazing goats in Juniper Forest just above my village, and our goats would smell Juniper that kept them off diseases”, He claims. He says that they would smoke away the shade of evil spirits from their children by burning the branches of Juniper. Aziz says, “these Junipers would give shade to shavanan (fairies), responsible for caring our goats. When we would go to high mountains, we would give shout to shavanan of high pastures, and would pray for safety of our goats. Juniper trees have now been retreated to the limits of mountains due to overuse as fuelwood, and so have the shavanan. The denuding mountains are now chasing us with threats of every kind, and we have nowhere to hide.
