In Jammu region, we have the well-known wetland of Surinsar-Mansar, and in the Valley, we have the famous Hokarsar wetland. As wetlands are usually bird sanctuaries, therefore bird shooting disallowed, except under specific rules. The Government usually gives powers to the Game Warden to take care of the wetlands. Hokarsar has been a world famous sanctuary for rare species of birds flying in from as distant a place as Siberia in Russia during harsh winter months when snow, ice and cold make availability of victuals quite difficult for the birds.
Surinsar-Mansar wetlands in Jammu region are ideal wetlands and have always been an attraction for tourists. However, unfortunately, development and protection of this wetland has not become a serious concern of the authorities in the sense that the Wetland Division of the Wildlife Department in Jammu region scantily attends to its preservation and maintenance. In comparison to attention focused on wetlands in the Valley and the maintenance amounts sanctioned for those wetlands, what the Surinsar-Mansar is provided in the shape of financial support from annual budget, is meager and insignificant. From a rough estimate, Government provides this wetland an annual grant of 30 lakh rupees for preservation purpose. It looks a big joke to think of maintaining a wetland with that meager annual grant. For want of proper maintenance, these wetlands are shrinking fast. Official figures reveal that an amount of Rs 1.82 crore has been received for the development of Surinsar-Mansar wetland during the last six years from the Union Ministry of Environment. However, only an amount of Rs 1.38 crore has been spent until now.
It is sad to note that owing to sheer apathy of the Government, two once well-known wetlands of Jammu region, namely Ramgarh and Abdullian, have vanished and many others have considerably shrunk in size. Likewise, some more wetlands have also vanished from surface. If abandoned to a similar treatment of apathy and carelessness, Surinsar-Mansar wetland will be extinct sooner than later. It is intriguing that the Government vexes eloquent on giving a big boost to tourism in the State by pronouncing a slew of schemes, mostly Kashmir-centric. Why is that Surinsar-Mansar destination, having sufficient tourist potential, is left to callous ignorance and apathy? Is it a facet of subtle discrimination against Jammu tourism? Unchecked deforestation causing soil erosion and silting accumulation, encroachments in and around the water bodies and apathetic attitude and unimaginative policies of the concerned authorities have led to the degradation and shrinking of the area of the wetlands. These are also the observations of experts in the field. In addition, we know that the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, called the Ramsar Convention, is an inter-governmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and proper use of wetlands and their resources. We fail to understand why the State Government has not approached the Union Government to become a beneficiary of the Ramsar Convention, which, among other things, charges member countries with the responsibility of preserving wetlands in the broader perspective of climatic change and ecological preservation on the globe.
We have reasons to believe that there are forces at administrative level that are not comfortable with Jammu region developing in some of the sensitive areas. They either scuttle projects or cut their financial allocation drastically, and thus paralyze the schemes and projects. This is a very unhealthy trend. We beseech the Government of the State to shun antics like these, as these are counter to uniform development of all the three regions of the State. It should come out with a clear and viable mechanism of preserving Surinsar-Mansar wetland and plan an exclusive scheme for developing it as tourist destination.
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