Rs 45.39 cr spent on Wular lake conservation
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, October 16
Out of the Rs 60 crore released by the Central government, Rs 45.39 crore have been spent on implementing the management action plan to save and conserve Wular lake, the largest fresh water body in the region.
A state government spokesman said Rs 45.49 crore had been utilised by the Wular Conservation and Management Authority, tasked to conserve and manage the lake, for implementation of the approved revised management action plan.
“Of this, Rs 29.06 crore were spent on water management, Rs 13.51 crore on conservation of the catchment area while Rs 1.78 crore was spent on survey and demarcation. An amount of Rs 1.04 crore was spent on the institutional development,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman said the Government of India, under the 13th Finance Commission, had sanctioned Rs 120 crore for the lake’s conservation and restoration. “The amount was to be released in a phased manner with an allocation of Rs 30 crore from the year 2011-12 onwards. Till end of March, 2016, an amount of Rs 60 crore was released and provided to the Wular Conservation and Management Authority,” the spokesman said.
As a part of the initiative to protect and preserve the lake, the Central government had in 2011 approved the Wular Lake Conservation Project costing Rs 120 crore under the 13th Finance Commission. However, the state government had asked for Rs 386.39 crore.
The Central project suffered several delays as it took more than a year to set up the authority, the prerequisite for release of funds.
The size of the lake has shrunk by 45 per cent — from 157 sq km in 1911 to 86.71 sq km. This has happened due to “change in land use” as 17 per cent of its territory has been converted into plantation land and 25 per cent is being used for agriculture purposes.
Over the years, increased siltation created massive chunks of land in the lake over which more than 20 lakh trees were planted by various government departments. In the past three years, more than 25,000 trees have been removed from the lake.
Wular, which accounts for 60 per cent of the state’s total fish production, has been declared as a wetland of national importance in 1986 and was subsequently declared as a Ramsar site in 1990 to give it the status of wetland of international importance.
The lake also acts as a huge absorption basin during annual floods, like the one in September, 2014, which ravaged through the region.
