Chief Secretary feels that an amount of rupees 120 crore released by the Central Government for Wular Conservation and Management is insufficient and that the concerned authorities should impress upon New Delhi to provide 386 crore rupees for the project. The Chief Secretary has indicated that the Government has already sent Conservation and Management Action Plan of wetlands to the Centre for implementation. Three wetland sites have been mentioned and these are Wular in Kashmir, Mansar in Jammu and Tso-Morari in Ladakh.
Conservation of water bodies is an accepted principle with the Ministry of Environment and water bodies fall within the ambit of that category. All efforts have to be made to preserve them. Conservation and development are possible only when funds are available. The common sense is that these bodies should be preserved and maintained in a manner that they can also generate revenue if not in full at lest in substantial part. We hope the Government or the concerned department will have drawn a plan to that purpose. While we fully support conservation ad preservation programme of wetlands of the State, we also would touch upon the case of Dal Lake in this connection. Hundreds of thousands of rupees were spent on conservation of Dal Lake but despite the entire amount spent, the Dal still presents not an attractive look. The weeds are there and pollution of its water continues. Seventeen thousand homesteads were relocated from their habitats in the Dal and have been rehabilitated elsewhere. If that is all what had to be done with the Dal, it is no solace. If this is also to be done with the Wular and Mansar, it will raise many questions. All that the people would like is that the amount sanctioned in the name of conservation of wetlands is utilized properly.
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