Dal lake gasps for breath

Arun Joshi
Tribune News Service
Jammu, August 14

Shimmering waters of the Dal lake, the breathtaking tourist attraction over the decades, is headed toward its death for the attempts to save it from its end have been stalled.

Its expanse has shrunk to an alarming extent — it was found in August 2018 to be less than half of its original size, now it has shrunk further.

This continued situation may well be blamed on the lack of action on remedial measures suggested after surveys and assessments during then J&K Governor NN Vohra’s tenure. Vohra left the state on August 27, 2018. Virtually no work has been done since he left.

Vohra was alarmed when he inspected the lake on several occasions and voiced his concern over the extraordinary growth of weeds and foliage.

He was passionate to restore the lake’s glory with the help of the Navy and hydrographers, who undertook surveys, made assessments, and gave suggestions.

Vohra had sought the help of the then Navy Chief, Admiral Sunil Lamba, on whose suggestion he roped in Vice-Admiral SK Jha (retd), who is a top hydrographer, and Rajesh Tripathi, CMD of the Dredging Corporation of India, to undertake benchmark surveys in July 2018.

Tripathi’s assessment rang alarm bells — the size of the lake had shrunk from 22 sq km to 10 sq km. The report also stated that the water quality had deteriorated due to “intense pollution caused by untreated sewage and solid wastes that flow into the lake; encroachments of water channels and clogging has diminished the circulation and inflows into the lake, leading to extensive weed growth of jal khumbh (water hyacinth), which has emerged as a health hazard; due to siltation, encroachment, etc, the depth of the lake had reduced at many places, and its total capacity has gone down to 40 per cent; the continuing night soil discharge from the 800/900 houseboats was causing extreme pollution.”

This assessment was shared on August 2, 2018 and immediately thereafter Vohra unveiled a five-point approach to save the lake from further destruction — (i) to request Chief of the Indian Navy for help in a comprehensive bathymetric survey of the Dal-Nageen lake to establish a benchmark database for deciding the extent of dredging, etc, required; (ii) to hold immediate discussions for appointment of the Dredging Corporation of India as the nodal consulting agency to prepare a project report which focus on dredging; (iii) to initiate immediate action for examining the possibility of installing holding tanks and bio-digesters to prevent the discharge of sewage by the houseboats into the lake; (iv) the Lake and Waterways Development Authority to commence immediate finalisation of a proposal for installing additional aerators in the lake to raise the

dissolved oxygen levels in the stagnant pockets; (v) Vice-Chairman, LAWDA, to share with the CMD, DCI, all

information regarding the

state government’s recent decision to procure/hire lake-cleaning machines.

However, after Vohra left the state, all movement on this front was halted, and the lake continues its steady journey towards death.