Rajan Gandhi
Every year India loses 6,000 million tones of fertile soil annually. Nearly 30 per cent per cent of the country’s total geographical area is undergoing degradation. The degrading area has increased to 29.3 million hectares. Just nine States together account for nearly 24 per cent of desertification, the culprit States are Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. The main culprit is water erosion followed by degrading vegetation and land or soil erosion due to wind. Desertification implies it is degradation that cannot be reversed in a lifetime (around 60 years).
Over 80 percent of the world’s major armed conflicts from 1950-2015 have occurred or are occurring in the most biologically diverse and threatened places on the earth. The study points out 34 bio-diverse hotspots in the world and one among them is the Himalayan region with its multiple conflicts – Afghanistan, Pakistan,Kashmir, Tibet and North-East India. The co-relation between conflicts and the environmental threat to the regions should not come as a surprise and as it has accelerated degradation in the last two decades of the Kashmir turmoil. The conflict has wrecked havoc on the forests and water resources of Jammu and Kashmir. Though there may be other reasons for the threat to the environmental degradation of the Himalayan region including Kashmir, the two decade long conflict has only doubled up the speed of destruction. With virtually no check on forest cutting the damage is obvious. The massive fencing of the borders in recent years and mining of vast tracks of land has also cost the environment dearly taking a heavy toll of the wildlife also and often causing man-animal conflicts. The forests are shrinking and consequently wild beasts are forced to move closer to the residential areas, posing a unique conflict of its kind. The unchecked pollution and depletion of water resources is equally a cause for concern. At the world’s highest and iciest battleground at Siachen,the India-Pakistan conflict has greatly disturbed the flora and fauna of the region since the mid-eighties when the icy heights were first militarized. The depleting water resources and the forest cover, which are crucial to life, are a collective inheritance of humankind and so there is dire immediacy to resolve the issue. The famous lakes of Kashmir Valley have already been turned into vast dustbins. In the last 100 years, more than 50% of the lakes, ponds and wetlands of Srinagar have been encroached upon for constructing buildings and roads. There are 1,230 lakes and water bodies in the state with 150 in Jammu and 415 in Kashmir and 665 in Ladakh region. Massive encroachments and erection of many structures and hotels have led to the reduction in the size of the Dal lake . Construction in low-lying areas of Srinagar, especially along the banks of the Jhelum, had blocked discharge channels of the river. Srinagar’s water retention and drainage system has collapsed due to the degradation of the network of lakes. This has been worsened by the excessive siltation in the lakes and water bodies from the massive deforestation in the Jhelum basin. These water bodies act as sponge to absorb excess water and control flood in this region but with the link between the lakes cut off due to unplanned urbanization and encroachment, the lakes have lost their power to absorb water and save the city from floods and result was obvious in 2014.
Presently around 1500 house boats are inside the lake and an estimated 9000 metric tons of waste annually is disposed directly into Dal Lake. The area of Dal Lake which was 22 sq km in 1931 has shrunk the present area of the Dal Lake only 11 sq km. In order to accommodate more tourists in their houseboats and houses, more and more Hanjis are settling in and around the lake.In the mid-1970s, with tourism becoming a key industry for Jammu and Kashmir, the pressure on the lake multiplied. The 1981 census recorded that hamlets around the lake had a population of 24,500, an increase of over cent per cent since 1973. Although the tourists population dwindled after militancy broke out in 1989, the human population on and around the lake registered a steady growth.The Lakes and water Development Authority believes that about 45,000 people are now residents on the houseboats and hamlets and assuming just about 5,000 tourists live on them through the year, the lake bears the burden of about 50,000 people. These settlements spill all their wastes into the lakes. This result in increasing levels of solid waste from the peripheral areas and from the settlements into the lake resulting in sedimentation and excessive weed growth.It has become the victim of eutrophication, siltation, encroachment, vegetables cultivation in floating fields, and sewage disposal. It is not only that its water-covered area is shrinking and it is becoming shallower and the quality of its water is one of the worst in the Himalayan region.
Wrapers, plastic bags, tins, cans, vegetables peeling, empty cigarette cases, resultant garbage and numerous weeds may be seen floating in its water affecting the look of the lake.The heavy deforestation in the catchment of Dachigam and Telbal Nallah, which discharge their water into the Dal Lake have accentuated the process of siltation. Much of the silt is deposited near its northern shore as it is blocked by a Bund (embankment) in the lake.The land, thus, formed has been reclaimed for farming and pastoral activity and this had added to the load of organic waste in the lake.The run-off from the fertilized paddy fields and untreated sewage work as excellent manures leading to much faster growth of weeds. The stories of Wular, Anchar and Manasbal lakes are almost identical.
Story in Jammu division is no different, encroachments of nullas , pollution in river Tawi, various hydro projects in Chenab valley are playing havoc with the environment and people are already paying heavy price.Sanasar lake has already disappeared and degradation of Mansar and Suriansar is going at rapid pace.The glaciers in past two decades have shrunk at an alarming rate of 20% which adversely affects the discharge and water table for usage. This has also badly affected the biodiversity of the state. Recent studies and systematic reviews indicate that environmental factors are responsible for an estimated 24 per cent of the global burden of disease in terms of healthy life years lost and 23 per cent of all deaths. Children are the worst sufferers of the adverse impact of environmental diseases. 24 % of all deaths under the age of 15 are due to diarrhea, malaria and respiratory diseases all of which are environment-related. It is high time Government and people realize that nature will reclaim within no time what we have encroached for decades and the sooner we realize the better it is for us.
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” Mahatama Gandhi,
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