Usually, it is only when things slip out of hands that the Government and its concerned agencies wake up to sort out a problem and when it is the question of two famous lakes of Surinsar and Mansar , the continuous deterioration in the quality of water has now started damaging the aquatic life therein. The irony is that the inhabitants of adjoining areas which ought to have been like watchdogs of these God given boons to prevent any of such acts , direct or indirect and are themselves watching helplessly these lakes being violated in many ways including the uncontrolled flow of effluents from their areas into these lakes.
How locals and those of the adjoining areas can play a yeoman’s role in saving these natural legacies can be learnt from the noted “Chipko Movement” which started from Rajasthan and emulated on a large scale by the natives of Uttrakhand to save the trees by practically hugging them and remaining steadfast in that position to prevent their felling . They coined a slogan “Ecology is the permanent economy” . Chipko literally means to stick to or hug something. It may sound slightly out of core context but is loaded and brimming with the message that it is the people alone who have to rise, voice , preserve and guard natural sources. Sources of water like lakes which besides providing us water , are home to different types of fish and water birds, fowls and other vertebrate and invertebrate life , water bugs, frogs, turtles, herons , plants etc and need constant vigil and measures to keep them unharmed. Not only are their mere sight or a glimpse providing a soothing touch to our eyes but are also helping boost the economy by serving as favourite tourist spots. They provide directly and indirectly employment opportunities to many people especially the locals hence the paramount need to maintain, preserve and conserve such natural sources.
What, again, has the State Government done about saving these lakes from slowly plunging into a stage of decay , deterioration, withering and ultimate putrefaction, less said the better. Sewage treatment plants, decided to be set up are nowhere in sight. As per experts’ reports, dissolved oxygen level in Surinsar and Mansar lakes is less than 4 mg/litre as against 6 mg/litre as per the national environment standards. There can be no two opinions about adequate dissolved oxygen level being fundamental not only for good water quality of a lake but a prerequisite for the sustenance of its aquatic life . Likewise, bio-chemical oxygen demand should be almost zero while in respect of these two lakes, it is more than 6 mg/litre which means a severe threat to the aquatic life. It is noteworthy that the State Pollution Control Board is reported to be at regular intervals conducting tests of the water of these two lakes only to find continuous deterioration in the standard and the quality thereof. It is admitted that the Board must be sharing such information with the concerned State authorities and hence the Government, which appears to be doing nothing in the matter, to start with addressing seriously the problem of effluents flowing into these lakes.
We only wish all stakeholders to realise the threat to these two lakes and feel concerned about how the problem was addressed and resolved in a planned way but as early as possible to prevent these two lakes to meet the same fate as of the two famous lakes of Dal and the Wullar in Kashmir division which have since entered the “precarious condition” in respect of pollution and encroachment. We earnestly want the state administration under the Governor to take a call in the matter and concretize the decisions taken in the meeting of January 22, 2019 which was chaired by the Advisor to Governor , K. Vijay Kumar and evolve a concrete and result oriented plan.
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