Asem Mohiuddin
24 year old Ashfaq Ahmad is staring at Wullar Lake from the vantage point. The moment half a dozen dredges move inside and clean its decades old slit, Ashfaq smiles. He is seeing the bright future of the lake through its pristine clear waters.
“It was disturbing me whenever I was passing through this Asia’s largest clean water lake. It was encroached and filled with slit,” he recalls. “As the work for its restoration is in full swing, I am sure it will again look beautiful and attract tourists”.
Ashfaq is not alone expressing his satisfaction over the ongoing efforts of Wular Conservation & Management Authority (WUCMA).
In fact the whole vicinity around the Wullar Lake is excited over the dredging of Lake. Hundreds of houses were facing consistent flood threats in winters and rainy seasons after the lake was overflowing since its water holding capacity had drastically declined due to accumulation of slit.
“Since the slit was too high in the waters, the water was overflowing the basin and eventually seeping into the residential areas,” Abdul Rashid tells The Legitimate. “We were living under perpetual fear. Since the dredging is in full speed and its water holding capacity is being increased substantially, we will heave a sigh of relief now.”
The ongoing dredging, the officials claim, will not only protect the adjacent areas of Wullar Lake, it will minimize the flood chances across Kashmir.
According to officials, the dredging is cleaning slits upto 2.5 meters of the lake. And this is enough depth for the regular water holding in addition of occasional incessant and over average rainfalls throughout the year.
“It is for the first time that dredging has been started in Wullar Lake in 2020 after the Union government provided Rs 150 crore for its restoration,” says Mohammad Ashraf, the project incharge.
Even though the WUCMA has come into being in 2011-12, however, it could not take up any conservation project owing to paucity of funds.
Interestingly, this is probably the first project in the history of Kashmir that is completing its target much ahead of its deadline.
“As per the tender we are supposed to clean 3.10 square kilometers of area and the 2.27 square kilometers have already been completed. Even though we have 21 months left to meet the deadline but the way the work is undergoing, we will complete it in just 2 months of time now,” Mohammad Ashraf says.
So far 48.94 lakh cubic meters of slit has been cleared of the total target of 63.93 lakh cubic meters. But it does not mean the whole Lake is cleaned up. The officials estimate that around 27 square kilometers of lake which is critically under slit needs to be restored and massive efforts are required.
“A lot needs to be done. But it will all be depending on the availability of funds and we are hopeful the project is further expanded and more areas are cleaned up,” says Mohammad Ashraf.
The actual area of Wullar is over 270 square kilometers but presently the available area is only 130 sqkms.
To avoid further encroachment, the officials have geo-tagged the entire area of 130 sqkms and claim that geo-tagging has left no scope for further encroachment.
The officials, however, claim that unlike Dal Lake, Wullar faces minimum threats of encroachment. In winters the water level is alarmingly increasing and it is covering huge areas around. So no one is daring to encroach upon its banks or nearby areas.
With most of the land around Wullar Lake belonging to the Union Territory government, the major issue the river basin faces is large scale plantation of willow trees by the locals. The plantation is encouraging the accumulation of slit and eventually turning into small islands within the Lake.
The officials of WUCMA, however, are on job to cut down the trees within the Lake and are alternatively planting the same number of trees in adjoining areas.
“We have been cutting down all the trees earlier planted inside the Wullar after auctioning them. But we are planting the same number of trees in the adjoining areas,” the officials say.
Meanwhile, to promote Wullar as an alternative tourist destination to minimize the pressure on Dal Lake, the Jammu Kashmir administration is mulling a foreshore road around the lake. The multi crores project though in its infancy stage is likely to be approved soon.
“If the project is through, I am sure it will attract a large number of tourists to Bandipora and will help locals to reap its economic dividends. We urge the government to clear it on priority basis,” say the WUCMA officials.
