Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 6: The Environmental Policy Group (EPG) today has called for an independent scientific inquiry into the recent cyanobacterial bloom in Dal Lake, rejecting official claims that the phenomenon was caused by rising temperatures or reduced water inflow.
Group’s Convenor Faiz Ahmed Bakshi, in a statement said the bloom began nearly two weeks ago when ambient temperatures were relatively cool, ruling out temperature rise as the triggering factor.
EPG also contested the explanation linking the bloom to reduced inflow into the lake.
While acknowledging that a recent dry spell has lowered surface inflow, the group said nearly 30 percent of Dal Lake’s water supply comes from subsurface lake-bed springs.
Such hydrological conditions alone, it said, are not scientifically sufficient to trigger a bloom of this scale.
The environmental group suggested that large-scale mechanical deweeding carried out shortly before the bloom may have triggered the phenomenon.
According to the group, the deweeding was undertaken under an annual contract awarded by the Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA), reportedly without prior scientific evaluation of the timing, extent of vegetation removal, or the ecological consequences of disturbing rooted lake-bed weeds.
“In earlier years, deweeding followed established scientific protocols, including ecological threshold assessments. The absence of such evaluation in this instance represents a serious procedural lapse,” the group said.
EPG explained that mechanical removal of rooted vegetation without ecological safeguards can disturb nutrient-rich sediments at the lake bed.
This, it said, releases nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen into the water column, which are rapidly utilised by cyanobacteria naturally present in freshwater systems, leading to explosive growth.
The bloom has appeared as thick green scum resembling spilled paint across large stretches of the lake surface, accompanied by foul odour and extensive green discoloration of the water body, EPG said.
These characteristics are typical of a Microcystis bloom, caused by cyanobacteria thriving in nutrient-rich freshwater systems, it noted.
Independent microscopic examination of affected water samples has reportedly confirmed the presence of Microcystis, the group said, adding that objections had earlier been raised against conducting deweeding without scientific monitoring.
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