There are not two opinions that water is among the most precious commodities on the globe and its preservation is of utmost importance for the survival of human, animal and plant life. Underground water is fast depleting; huge glaciers are melting, rivers and streams are shrinking and drinking water is becoming scarcer. Governments everywhere in the world are exhorting people to conserve water and water bodies as these are vulnerable to the risk of extinction.
Nature has gifted our State with the bounty of water. Four important rivers of northern India, namely Indus, Jhelum, Chenab and Ravi flow partly or fully through the territory of the State. They are perennial rivers and do not dry up in summer. As such, we should have been a rich and prosperous State. However, just saying that big rivers flow through our State is not enough. River waters have to be tamed and put to use in a number of ways like producing hydroelectric power, use for irrigation, developing fisheries and water birds and the like.
Tawi is a prominent river in Jammu region. It flows around the Trikuta hills and is the life line of the city of Jammu from which water is lifted, treated and supplied for drinking purposes. Rivers create wetlands and marshes when their waters come to a standstill in the low lying areas. The wetlands and marshes are highly useful. First, migratory birds are enchanted to visit the marshes in winter and pick up bites to survive during the winter months. But the most important usage of the wetlands and marshlands is that these absorb the superfluous waters whenever the river is in spate owing to incessant rains during or out of rainy season. When the nullahs and streams gush with water, Tawi overflows and overflowing water is absorbed by the marshes and wetlands and thus the danger of the rising waters inundating the habituated areas is reduced. This is the scheme of nature and it is the foolproof scheme. But man is selfish and greedy. It is reported that greedy people in complicity with the revenue officials have grabbed the marshes and wetlands and converted these into habitation sites where structures have been raised. The net result is that flood water finds no escape route or absorption in the encroached lands and thus waters cause flood and leave behind devastation. 2014 floods in Kashmir and parts of Jammu have revealed that one of the important reasons of those devastating floods was that wetland had been either silted or encroached upon and the outlet of extra water had been sealed forcing the overflowing nullahs to inundate the lands and habitats lying along its banks and sides.
This matter was brought to the notice of the High Court through a PIL and the court, after examining all the information submitted to it by the litigants, issued orders that the Government should get the illegally encroached lands vacated and the structures illegally raised there be demolished. The court order specifically said that such encroachments were a cause of obstruction to the flow of the water and in times of heavy rains the obstruction results in the flooding of the areas on the right and left of the bank of the river and nullahs. But it is shocking to know that even after the court order has been issued to proper state authorities, no step has been taken in this connection so far regarding vacating illegal encroachments or pulling down the structures illegally raised there. Why are the State authorities soft paddling on the issue remains a mystery. Unless there are vested interests, there should not have been any reason to defy the orders of the court. Not only that, no body is taking any serious notice of the pollution that is accumulating and defiling the ecological balance. We have the Jammu & Kashmir Water Resources (Regulation and Management) Act, 2010. The main purpose of having this Act was to ensure development, management planning, utilization and monitoring of water resources in the State by removing all the encroachments and obstructions. While expressing concern over failure of the Government to frame State Water Policy in terms of J&K Water Resources (Regulation and Management) Act, 2010, the DB had directed for framing of policy for preservation and restoration of wetlands/marshland as also for preserving the sanctity of River Tawi from being polluted by waste and toxic water emanating from authorized/ unauthorized colonies by including stringent and effective measures. The DB had fixed timeframe of two months for strict compliance to these directives. The date has already expired and the orders of the Court are awaiting implementation.
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