Ivkar Hussain Malik
The Mansar lake is situated 60kms away from Jammu main city. Its pristine beauty and the crystal clear environment attract everybody eyes, not only the tourists but also the locals who have fallen in love with the beautiful surroundings of Mansar lake.
Mansar lake is famous for two main reasons. The one is being a tourist spot while the other being a hotspot for many holy shrines’. There are many holy shrines’ like Sheshnag (A snake with 6 heads) and some famous Hindu temples like Umapati Mahadev, Narshima, and also a temple of Durga.
Importance of Mansar lake
As mentioned earlier the schools, colleges that are situated in the Jammu region and its nearby area whenever they decided for a picnic their last destination is always Mansar lake. Thousands of Hindus are visiting the temple for a ritual called “Mundan”.
Mansar lake comes under the Ramsar convention treaty (1971) and India being the member of this convention have its true belligerence. Moreover, the Mansar and Suransar lakes come under World heritage sites.
If we look over the present scenario already, the country is fighting with the pandemic and unemployment touching new heights. Mansar Lake is a tourist spot and employs hundreds of youths. The people earn a hefty amount of money by providing the necessary items and services to the tourists. The shopkeepers, the minibus holder’s and the hoteliers are earning a handsome amount of money from the tourists, but this employment is at risk due to the increasing water level in Mansar lake and if the water level will increase further it will only bring destruction.
According to some reports and locals the water level of the lake is increasing fast. Day by day the land of the banks is sinking into the water due to erosion of soil and that creates a panic situation among the locals. Being a native of the land I found my utmost responsibility to put the situation in front of the people through this platform. I want to draw the attention of the responsible JK tourism department due to their negligence and failure of work thousands of lives are at stake.
Although the water pipes are fixed by the tourism department to push out the water from the lake but the water will only be pulled out when it will reach the dangerous level that is demarked by the said department and this foolishness from the part of j and k tourism department. so this is a hand-folded request to the department to take some major steps so that the ill omen will not survive.
In case the required steps are not taken quickly then the people who live along the banks of the lake will face extinction.
As the lake is bounded from all the four sides with water and the coming monsoon will further increase the level in mid-July and early August, the area may face chances of massive floods that will put both the life and property at risk.
The restoration and maintenance work should be handed over to a competent authority who has a complete knowledge of the lakes and they should be allowed to work without any involvement of the political parties.
Some senior officers must be appointed by the tourism department to look over the matter as soon as possible.
Ivkar Hussain Malik is a civil servant aspirant hails from Khanna Chardal Dhoon, Jammu and can be reached at ivkarm786@gmail.com
