With the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar slowly dying, the Jammu and Kashmir government is for declaring the lake and its surroundings as an eco-sensitive zone.
“The Committee of Experts” on Dal Lake will soon submit the final proposal to the Housing and Urban Development Department. The State will sent the recommendations to the Centre soon. The officials hoped that the announcement would come by March.
The Jammu and Kashmir Government set up the ten-member Committee of Experts after concern was raised against Dal Lake’s present situation. Former Delhi Metro Rail Corporation M D Dr E Sreedharan, former Additional Chief Secretary of Kerala Nivedita P Haran, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd MD Mangu Singh, environmentalist M C Mehta and Jammu and Kashmir officials are the members of the committee.
Encroachment and Pollution have led to the shrinking of Dal Lake. Earlier the Dal Lake had an area of 22 square kilometres. Now the area has shrunk to about 10 square kilometres, according to the Dredging Corporation of India report.
The Dredging Corporation of India found that pollution from solid waste and untreated sewage. Apart from this, encroachment and clogging also cut the flow of water to the lake. With flow cut down, water hyacinth started to grow wildly in the lake.
The report noted that siltation led to the reduction of the lake’s depth.
