Rajan Gandhi
Kashmir which is also known as the “land of wetlands” with famous lakes likes Sheeshnag ,Manasbal,Wular,Dal,Hokersar , Nilnag,Gangbal, Vaishansar, Kishansar, Kausarnag, Khanpur and Waskur and are facing major threat due to urbanization. Built up area of Srinagar city has increased from 12.8 km² in 1901 to 82.88 km² in 1971 to 294 km² in 2015. Between 1901 and 2016 Srinagar’s population grew 14-fold and it is now 23 times as large in terms of area. More than half the water bodies in Srinagar and its suburbs disappeared during the past century. Land for growing paddy has shrunk by nearly a third since 2012, with a loss of more than 44,000 hectares. Farmers mostly keep their paddy land idle (fallow) for two or three years and get it declared Banjar-e-Kaddem (uncultivable land) by revenue officials, before selling it off for residential or commercial use and if the trend continues, Kashmir will be 80% dependent on imports for meeting food requirements. Moreover, with 1200 house boats inside the Dal Lake and an estimated 9000 metric tons of waste is annually disposed directly into Dal which has resulting in sedimentation and excessive weed growth.
Kashmir is caught in a precarious situation right now,on one hand state government needs permission of the Supreme Court to clean the Hokersar wetland, 16 km north of Srinagar, as this wetland was declared a protected area in 1978, which is also an abode to about six lakh resident and migratory birds of at least 21 species, to develop a flood channel to ensure that excess water from the river Jehlum is drained into the wetland. The Hokersar wetland was traditionally a flood basin but no de-silting in recent years has resulted in the natural feeding channels passing through the wetland losing its hydraulic parameters because of the rising bed level.The state government’s proposal is to revive the wetland and the drainage channel to ensure “unobstructed” release of water into the Wullar Lake. Immediate non action will result in reduction of the detention capacity of the Hokersar wetland further which has already shrunken from 29,120 acre feet to 22,669 acre feet at present. On the other hand unplanned growth of residential and commercial area into the catchment area of the water bodies, undesired changes in land use patterns and deforestation has led to excessive siltation in most of the lake and water bodies. Water from huge catchment area reaches the lakes and each lake has its flood discharge channel which drains the spill over. But such drains like Nallah Mar of Dal lake is lost to road construction, Doodhganga Nallah has been converted into residential and commercial buildings, Bemina and Batmaloo wetlands are converted into residential colonies. Lake Anchar, Gilsar Lake, Khushalsar Lake and Brar-i-Nambal water bodies which are located in the core area of the city are ecologically degraded due to excess ingress of pollution load.
Going by historical records, the entire growth of summer capital Srinagar through residential colonies, business centers and even Government infrastructure creation has for over 130 years been in the flood basin of the Jhelum river.Today, Walter Lawrence’s flood basin has vanished. Instead, there are residential neighbourhoods of Rajbagh, Kursoo, Jawahar Nagar, Gogjibagh, Wazir Bagh, Chanapora, Natipora, Bemina and Qamarwari, among others.What can be a bigger proof of the Government’s lack of foresight and planning than the fact that the Hajj House, the Jhelum Valley Medical College, the state motor garages and even the land records office that houses Kashmir’s entire revenue records were constructed by the Government in Bemina in the flood basin zone.The mud and slush that the Lidder stream in the south and the Sindh stream in the north brought down with their flood waters to drain into the mighty Jhelum announced loudly and violently that forests in the catchment areas of these streams have been felled, making the soil loose and erosion-prone.
Another problem area is dredging of Jehlum which is going on at snail’s pace right now due to various factors. It is claimed that the unrest last year did not allow to complete the dredging work during the stipulated one year.The fact is that the Government was barely in control of large parts of the Valley for long periods last year. Most of the seasonal migrant laborers from other states, on which Kashmir depends for manual labor, left quite soon after the unrest began in early July.After the uprising subsided in November, Kashmir had an extraordinarily harsh winter. Not only was the winter harsh, it also continued longer than usual. There was snow in large parts of the Valley, including Srinagar, even a couple of weeks ago. There is still a vast amount of snow piled on the higher reaches which adds to the current flood threat. The rain which the Valley has had in the month of April along with snowmelt has already caused Jehlum and other rivers flowing above danger mark. Quite soon, most of the snow on the mountains surrounding the Valley will melt and with any heavy rainfall floods are imminent. With only 1.20 lakh cubic feet dredging having been done in the Jhelum so far against the targeted 17 lakh cubic feet, the river can again cause the havoc that it did in September 2014 and the writing is clear on the wall.
For years there had been warnings that no matter how much greed and need of human to encroach and vandalize rivers, lakes and forests, one day these ecosystems would reclaim their original borders. This was ironically ignored by Kashmiris to their own detriment. It’s high time that Government and public wake up in time and utilize remaining weeks before onset of monsoon and start all out efforts to reclaim flood basins as well as dredging otherwise nature will repeat history and reclaim its due land but the damages will be beyond imagination of anyone .There is only one advice for Kashmir
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
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