Kashmir losing foothold on wetland

wetland

Published on July 20, 2004 By tejinder sodhi In Blogging

Tejinder sodhi

Baramulla: environmental activists warn that wetland in Kashmir are rapidly shrinking due to official apathy and rampant encroachment- endangering thousand of animals and migratory birds.
A billboard outside Haigam conservation reserve, a premier wetland in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district that is now plagued by massive siltation and encroachment reads, “In the past 50 years, two third of Kashmir’s wetland have vanished.
Silt has reduced the Haigam wetland to almost half its original area of 7.25 square kilometers.
“Five decades earlier, water levels in Haigam were over ten feet but now the maximum depth is two and a half feet,” says Ali Mohammad Mir, 73 a former wildlife guard who was witness to the decline of the wetland and blames official apathy for it.
The state boasts of 16 wetland, 9 of them in Kashmir valley. Experts predict these will vanish in around seven years if authorities continue to neglect them.
The Hokersar wetland, situated 16 kilometers north of srinagar, has also shrunk to 4.5 square kilometers as compared to its original area of 13.75 square kilometer. Hokersar hosted 450,000 migratory birds last winter but wildlife experts caution that the number of migratory winged visitors is steadily declining.
Worse, a large number of satellite wetlands, found in areas adjourning bigger water bodies, have completely vanished due to rampant urbanization and encroachment. Says a scientist with the Environment and remote sensing Department, Dr Haneefa Banoo, “In 1998, we spotted 500 lakes and water bodies in the valley. The number must have decreased in the past four years.”
Haneefa, who employed satellite imagery techniques to prepare the first classified directory of lakes and water bodies, in Kashmir, is now working on an update.
Wildlife expert Muhammad Shafi Baccha charges, “Human folly has spelt doom for the wetlands. The damage can be arrested if officials and citizens take initiative.”
Baccha says the diversion of flood channels to wetlands caused them to dry up.
For instance, an initiative to siphon water from the Doodhganga canal into the Hokersar Wetland to prevent srinagar city from heavy floods turned out to be disaster. Over the years, the canal has deposited thousands of tons of silt into the wetland.
“Massive siltation and encroachment are ensuring that the wetland reduces in size every day’” laments Baccha.
The Haigam wetland is battling with two perennial silt-depositoprs Baalkol and Ningli that flows into it.
“If the silt flow is effecectively checked, the lifespan of wetlands can be enhanced,” says environment expert Dr Tasneem Keng, who advocated a multi- disciplinary approach and strong political will to safe-guard these endangered water bodies.
Many charge that though government departments have funds, they lack coordination on implementing programs to manage wetlands.
Last year, Rs. 32 lakhs was spent under the national wetland Management Action plan funded by the federal ministry of environment and forests.
“Last year, we reclaimed hundreds of hectares in Haigam that had been encroached upon by locals for paddy cultivation.” Informs Mushtaq Ahmad Parsa, Head of the North Kashmir Chapter for wildlife preservation.
A public interest petition in the state high court has also retrieved wetlands that were encroached on way back in 1981.
A legal battle is on between the wildlife protection department and locals in the central district of Budgam, where locals have grabbed land originally belonging to the Mirgund wetland.
Encroachment is affecting other water bodies also. In Wular Lake, which is a world heritage site, thousands of hectares of encroached land have been identified, according to the Environment and remote sensing Department, Shahniyaz Naqshbandi.
Shrinking wetlands have affected the behavior of water fowl also.
Cormorants, which thronged these wetlands in the past, have reduced because of the shallow water. Says assistant wildlife warden Muhammad Ramzan dar, “The winged visitors have become more sensitive. They abandon the wetland over the slightest provocation, unlike in the past, when even booming hunter guns did not scare them.”
He says the birds stay in wetlands in the day and move out in the night to gather food. The wildlife protection department is now embarking on a massive de-siltation and de-weeding campaign to regain the wetland. The forests and environment ministry has approved Rs. 50 lakhs for the purchase of equipment to facilitate manual de-weeding in Hokersar wetland. The department compartmentalized the wetland for effective de-weeding and made boat ways for patrolling. Similar experiments are being undertaken in the Haigam and Mirgund wetlands.
The wetland preservation campaign seems to be gaining momentum among the public as well. Says Naqshbandi, “We conducted several seminars and symposiums to educate people on preserving water bodies. I think they are beginning to under stand the situation.”
Adds Khazir Muhammad Kotroo, a member of the non governmental organization sportsmen and conservation club, “we are ready to offer voluntary services for preservation but the government must take the initiative in such efforts.”
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