Mansar and Surinsar Victims of Fragmented Lake Governance in J&K

Mutaharra A W Deva

The ecological decline of Lakes of Jammu and Kashmir is no longer a hidden environmental concern. It is now a documented governance crisis.

The recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the condition of lakes and wetlands in Jammu and Kashmir presents a deeply disturbing picture. Out of 697 lakes recorded in 1967, nearly 315 lakes have disappeared entirely, while another 203 have shrunk significantly. In total, nearly 74 percent of the lakes in Jammu and Kashmir have either vanished or deteriorated alarmingly over the decades.

Among the major lakes specifically examined by the audit are Mansar Lake and Surinsar Lake which are the twin heritage lakes of Jammu region that once symbolised ecological serenity, hydrological balance and cultural continuity.

Today these lakes stand at the crossroads of tourism pressure, fragmented governance, ecological neglect and policy contradictions.

For me, this concern is not merely academic or administrative. Having worked extensively on lake management, environmental monitoring, water chemistry, wetland governance and climate policy in Jammu and Kashmir, I have witnessed the gradual ecological stress emerging across our freshwater systems over decades during my work in the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control framework included monitoring aquatic ecosystems and analysing the changing environmental parameters affecting lakes and river systems across the region.

The deterioration of Mansar and Surinsar did not happen suddenly. It evolved slowly through cumulative governance failures.

Ecological Origins of Mansar and Surinsar

The twin lakes of Mansar and Surinsar are located in the lower Shivalik belt of Jammu region and possess immense ecological, hydrological, cultural and religious significance. They are also recognised as important wetland ecosystems and Ramsar-associated conservation landscapes.

Hydrologically, these lakes are sustained through springs, rainfall, surface runoff, and catchment drainage systems. Scientific studies have repeatedly indicated that the lakes have gradually entered eutrophic conditions due to nutrient enrichment, organic loading, tourism pressure and anthropogenic disturbances.

Historically, these lakes functioned as relatively balanced freshwater ecosystems with natural biological regulation.Over time the balance weakened.

Tourism Without Ecological Planning

One of the major factors behind the degradation of Mansar and Surinsar has been unregulated tourism development.

Tourism itself is not the problem. Ecologically disconnected tourism planning is.The expansion of commercial activity, construction pressure, vehicular inflow, waste generation, boating activities, food outlets and poorly regulated infrastructure around the lake peripheries gradually altered the ecological character of these water bodies.

Scientific studies on Mansar Lake have specifically pointed toward deterioration in physico-chemical parameters due to tourism-related activities and changing land-use patterns in the catchment area.

Unfortunately, tourism planning in many ecologically fragile areas of Jammu and Kashmir has historically prioritised short-term visitor infrastructure over long-term ecological carrying capacity. Concrete interventions replaced ecological sensitivity.

Parking spaces expanded while catchment protection weakened. Commercialisation increased while hydrological regulation declined.

This is precisely the kind of fragmented developmental thinking that the broader CAG findings indirectly expose across Jammu and Kashmir lake systems.

Balancing Cultural Heritage and Ecological Stewardship

Mansar and Surinsar are not only important freshwater ecosystems but also cultural and religious heritage landscapes. Their conservation therefore requires approaches that respect local traditions while ensuring that management decisions remain informed by scientific monitoring, ecological assessment and long-term sustainability objectives. Effective lake governance must integrate ecological science, community participation and cultural sensitivity within a common conservation framework.

In the face of governance failure,departments operated within administrative silos. Tourism agencies, wildlife authorities, local governance structures and pollution control institutions remained poorly integrated into a unified lake management framework. The result was policy paralysis.

Fragmented Governance: The Core Problem

The CAG report repeatedly highlights weak coordination and fragmented institutional responsibility in lake conservation across Jammu and Kashmir.

Mansar and Surinsar remain under overlapping institutional structures involving tourism authorities, wildlife departments, local administrations and environmental agencies.

This fragmentation creates multiple operational failures:

* Weak accountability * Delayed decision-making

* Poor scientific monitoring *Duplication of responsibilities

* Inadequate catchment regulation * Absence of integrated lake basin management

Environmental governance cannot succeed when institutions function independently while ecosystems remain interconnected. Water does not recognise departmental boundaries.

Lake systems are shaped simultaneously by tourism, catchment forestry, hydrology, urban planning, biodiversity, pollution control, climate patterns and local livelihoods. Governance structures must therefore operate through ecological integration rather than bureaucratic compartmentalisation.

The Larger Ecological Warning

The deterioration of Mansar and Surinsar is part of a much larger environmental warning emerging across Jammu and Kashmir.The CAG findings reveal that lake shrinkage, encroachment, pollution, land-use change, weak monitoring, and fragmented governance have collectively pushed many freshwater systems toward ecological distress.

These lakes are not isolated water bodies.

* They are climate regulators.

* They recharge groundwater systems.

* They absorb runoff.

* They support biodiversity.

* They stabilise microclimates.

* They preserve cultural landscapes.

The shrinking and degradation of lakes directly increase flood vulnerability, ecological instability and climate stress across the region. Experts have repeatedly linked wetland degradation and shrinking water bodies to increased hydrological vulnerability witnessed during events like the 2014 Kashmir floods. This is why lake governance can no longer remain a peripheral environmental issue. It has become a climate security issue.

A Personal Reflection

My own engagement with environmental governance over decades has repeatedly shown me that ecological systems collapse gradually but recover slowly. During my work on lake management, water quality monitoring, environmental impact assessment and climate policy frameworks in Jammu and Kashmir, one lesson became increasingly clear. That is the scientific expertise must remain central to governance continuity.

Policies change.

Administrations change.

Departments restructure.

But ecological processes continue uninterrupted. Environmental governance in Jammu and Kashmir has too often suffered from institutional discontinuity, fragmented planning and weak integration between scientific expertise and administrative implementation.

The ecological stress visible today in many lakes was predictable years ago.

Warnings existed.Scientific indicators existed.But long-term ecological governance rarely received sustained institutional attention.

The Way Forward

The ecological future of Mansar and Surinsar depends upon whether Jammu and Kashmir is willing to shift from cosmetic conservation to scientific lake governance.The need of the hour is not isolated beautification projects.

What is needed is:

* Integrated lake basin management * Scientific carrying-capacity assessment for tourism

* Catchment area protection * Regulation of commercial expansion

* Continuous water quality monitoring * Biodiversity-based lake restoration

* Wetland-sensitive infrastructure planning * Public ecological awareness

* Institutional coordination across departments * Climate-linked freshwater governance

Most importantly, policy must recognise that ecology and economy cannot be treated as competing interests in fragile Himalayan systems.Tourism cannot survive if the ecological foundation collapses.

Call to Action

The CAG report should not remain confined to audit files and official discussions. It should become the basis for a new environmental governance framework for Jammu and Kashmir.Mansar and Surinsar are not merely tourist destinations.They are living ecological systems carrying the hydrological, cultural, and climatic memory of the region.

Their degradation is a warning. And warnings ignored eventually become disasters.The time has come for policymakers, scientists, tourism planners, civil society, religious stakeholders and citizens to collectively rethink how we govern our lakes and wetlands.

Jammu and Kashmir does not need fragmented conservation anymore. It needs ecological statesmanship.