Manasbal, the ‘supreme gem of all Kashmir lakes’, is deepest warm monomictic Marl lake with an area of about 280 ha2. The lake catchment consists mainly of limestone, karewas and recent alluvium. Thirty one percent of catchment is occupied by barren land without any vegetation with stone quarrying sites, which bring in tremendous amounts of limestone sediments into the lake eco-system. Three villages of Gratbal, Kondbal and Jarokbal are surrounding it. Kondabal locality, nearest to the banks of Mansbal Lake, is one of the major contributors of pollution of the lake due to the absence of proper sewage treatment plant. The refuse of their kitchens and washrooms directly goes into the lake. A proposal was made to make STP but the decision was later changed and it was decided that families living in the area should be shifted; however this proposal was again mooted. Similarly, the vast area of forest have been converted into agriculture, farmlands and illegal constructions that resulted in opening up the terrestrial ecosystem with heavy loads of nutrients leaching into the lake from the fertile top soil of the catchment area.
With sleeping MDA, housing and urban development authorities, blatant flouting of Srinagar Master Plan, no workable plan in place for solid and liquid waste, repeated violations of Comprehensive Environment Impact Assessment Report, unabated quarrying, lake is dying and as such ultimately High Court has to intervene and ban all construction activities around the lake. No lessons from the 2014 floods have been learnt as no visible efforts have been put to save these precious water bodies safeguarding Kashmir from floods. An appropriate mechanism has to be established for continuous monitoring of the wetland, its immediate surroundings and land system changes, hydrochemistry, bio-diversity and lake hydrology so that a robust strategy and action plan is developed along with afforestation of barren land with pine trees for the conservation and restoration of this important wetland in Kashmir Valley is the need of the hour, the sooner the better.
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