Monsoon dispels fears of Sukhna Lake running dry

Tribune News Service

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, August 5

Sukhna Lake is not dying, after all.

The rains that lashed the region in July this year wreaked havoc. But the heavy showers also washed away the apprehensions of the lake drying up. It overflowed for the first time as the city last month lived through the wettest day in 70 years recording 302.2 mm rainfall in 24 hours.

The rains have been exceptional, compelling the opening of the floodgates thrice so far this year. But the swelling up of the lake cannot be relegated to the category of a thin-on-the-ground phenomenon. The floodgates were opened six times till September 26 last year, giving credence to the submission by the National Institute of Hydrology that the lake is not dying.

Coming out with suggestions for prolonging Sukhna’s life, the Roorkee-based institute had asserted that the lake could not be said to be “limnologically” dying. A lake dies limnologically only when it gets completely filled with sediments and turns into a marshy or a land area.

“The people of Chandigarh and those who are attached to Sukhna Lake should be enlightened to refrain from over-reacting or scaring…. People should be informed that there is nothing to panic about, if the lake occasionally dries in a year or so, that too for a month or so, due to periodic occurrences of deficit rainfall years…,” the report advised. There has always been a deluge of concern among the residents about the lake drying up. Those living in Chandigarh in the 80s remember stories about the lake turning into a cricket stadium, with spectators sitting on its banks watching the game played on its bed.

The trepidations were not without reasons. Among other things, heavy siltation from 1958 to 1988 resulted in a reduction in the lake’s capacity and water spread area. The capacity came down from 1074.4-hectare metres in 1958 to 513.28-hectare metres in 2005. The water spread area too witnessed a reduction from 228.64 hectares to 148.28 hectares and the average depth fell from 4.694 metres at the embankment level to 3.484 metres during the period.

No wonder, the late 80s saw water cover reduced to a third, and unwanted vegetation growing on the dry bed. People could walk across the lake. It was then they came together for “Shramdan’ project to de-silt the lake by dry and wet dredging.

The matter reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court only in 2009 when it took cognisance and issued a notice to the Chandigarh Administration in November. The case has its genesis in a letter by Gautam Khanna “drawing the court’s attention towards the problems faced by the Sukhna Lake”.

The High Court since then has been hearing the “Save-Sukhna” case. It has over the past 15 years considered suggestions, studies, reports and affidavits filed by the authorities of the two States and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. In March 2020, the High Court directed an increase in the lake’s capacity, prevention of seepage losses, conferring living person status to it, and making citizens its human face.

The HC, while hearing the matter, observed: “This Court also takes judicial notice of the fact that in the last monsoon in August 2020 itself, there was a breach in the Sukhna Lake area and owing to the opening of floodgates of Sukhna Lake, there was flooding in Baltana and Zirakpur area…. Sukhna Lake being a rain-fed artificial lake, there is no scarcity of water, causing problems towards its protection and preservation in the present circumstances, in spite of the offending constructions.

“Sukhna Lake was built in 1958 across Sukhna Choe and was conceived as a place of relaxation, seclusion and sport.” As the waves of apprehensions are ebbing with the monsoons raising hopes, and the water levels, the residents can apparently look forward to relaxation, seclusion, and sport for times to come.

Rain-fed lake

The rain-fed lake in the foothills of the Shivalik range of the Himalayas was created way back in 1958 by damming the Sukhna Choe, a seasonal stream coming down from the Shivalik Hills. The High Court, in its order dated March 14, 2011, issued directions for restoring the lake and its former glory.

Watershed in history

The lake’s floodgates were opened after a decade on September 24, 2018. Since then, it has been a common phenomenon. Two floodgates had to be opened in August 2020. In 2021, the gates had to be opened five times; six times in 2022; and thrice so far this year.

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