Shallabugh and Haigam in North Kashmir are the two wetlands recently added into the list of Ramsar sites . These wetlands , once pride of Kashmir with a vast covered area , especially the Shallabugh spread over thousands of Kanals of land as compared to the present shrunk one , were home to rich wetland water fowls , migratory birds and other habitat and even providing livelihood to hundreds of people engaged in fisheries and reed harvesting . Nature has it all to play a wonderful part in that the Sindh River feeds the marshes and the wetland of the Shallabugh lake while that of Haigam wetland by the streams of Balkul and Ningli flood channels.
In the same way, it is a tragedy as to how human neglect and violation of such beautiful and prized natural assets lose all that they had been famous for. Haigam fresh water lake / wetland used to be called as “Queen of Mallards” but is presently gasping for survival as being on the verge of extinction . Pollution, illegal poaching , hunting, encroachments, pollution and the like have killed the spirit and the soul of this beautiful wetland . Anyway, by just having it included in the Ramsar sites can save these wetlands from near extinction. Now Ramsar is a repository of 75 sites -in Jammu and Kashmir the number covered being 5. Needless to add, Ramsar Convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 coming into force in 1975 taking care of conservation and wise use of the resources of the wetland.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
