DAL LAKE – A MAN MADE MISERY

The highlight of a visit to Kashmir has to be an overnight stay at one of the gorgeous houseboats on Dal Lake. A tranquil and beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. The lake is fed by runoff from the Himalays. Several houseboats are moored around the lake.
But the world famous Dal Lake, one of the largest natural lakes in India is dying. In Srinagar, the lake is carrying the burden of several hamlets, floating gardens, hotels and lodges. Once heart wrenchingly beautiful, the lake today takes in the entire city’s sewage. Human refuse from the houseboats is discharged into the lake. As a result, the quality of the lake is deteriorating and its vast aquatic reserves is dangerously shrinking. The growth of a mysterious red weed during the last decade has further choked the lake.
Besides being a tourist attraction and a source of livelihood to hundreds of localities, the Dal lake has been a source of inspiration for many poets and painters. But the local people, who have observed the ecological damage over the years knows that the end of this beautiful lake is not very far. In not more than two decades the lake might be reduced to a dirty pond.
If we refer to the data, in 1200 A.D this lake was 75 sq km in area. By the 1980s the area reduced to 25 sq km, and today it has shrunk to merely 12 sq km. So the first question that comes to our mind is- How? Was the lake stroked with a geological bomb? What caused such serious degradation to this beautiful lake? The human settlements, water pollution, construction within and on the periphery of the lake, and continued agricultural activity (like the floating gardens), lead to the steady degradation of the lake.
Today 3,00,000 people are living in the catchment area and over 30,000 live on the lake. The floating garden , which provide 50 percent of the vegetables to the Kashmir Valley, is a major threat to the lake. Though beautiful, but it is a ticking time bomb. The debris and organic waste from these garden settles into the lake bed, making it shallow. The lake which was 17 feet a decade ago is now only 9 feet deep today. Shocked? I was too! Though the government is taking steps to conserve this lake, but not as concrete as it should be. (I saw in one of the news channel that the UPA government invested Rs. 9 cr. to buy MPs to protect the falling government. The ministers were displaying bundles of cash in the Parliament.) Politics apart!! Although the state administration has tried to relocate people from the lake to residential colonies, it has not met with any success. As these people were not provided any means of livelihood, they were forced to return back to the lake. In ancient time, some people were given right on the lake by the then kings. People have exploited this privilege and have brought up hotels and lodges by filling parts of the lake. Such construction has caused a serious ecological unbalance.
Above all, the city’s sewage is been continuously dumped into the lake- untreated! The city of Srinagar, one of the hot-spots of Indian Tourism, do not have a proper drainage and sewage system, till date. A recent report from the Directorate of Environment (Kashmir) stated that the disposal of sewage was one of the main factors behind the growth of algae in the lake. There came a red warning in August 1991, whereby a thick layer of red algal bloom Euglena rubra - appeared on the surface of the lake. The local fish population of Shizo thorax declined, and the faeces of warm-blooded animals contaminated the water. Surprisingly enough, the important water plant - Eurayle ferox - too disappeared from the lake due to the deteriorating water quality.
Revival of tourism has brought its own problem. During the peak months, the Dal lake is choked with plastic bags and coke cans. People litter around this majestic gift of nature to our country.
Dal lake pollution provides us with a classic example of how little we appreciate the beauty of nature. Dal lake-much visited, little understood-has become a pathetic sight. It no longer cleans the body; it only saps the body and sags the soul!