7 Kashmir lakes become ‘invisible’, dry up

Jammu, Apr 5: Change of land use, degradation, near total absence of conservation measures have made seven lakes of Kashmir to become ‘invisible’ or totally withered.

The revelation came to the fore through analysis of Google Earth Pro images to ascertain land use changes in lakes and their catchments in J&K.

Audit analysis of the data from J&K Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing Department (EE&RSD) revealed that the total area of lakes in J&K decreased by 2851.26 hectares compared to the base year 1967, with 2014 as the reference year for Kashmir Division and 2020 for Jammu division.

“There had been spatio-temporal changes in lakes between 1967 and 2020,” stated the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on “Conservation and management of lakes in J&K” for the period ended March 2022, with reference to 63 test-checked lakes.

Out of these 63 lakes, the water area of 1,024.18 hectares in the case of 11 lakes had disappeared while the water area of 909.60 hectares in respect of 30 lakes had decreased which included four lakes wherein the decrease in water areas was more than or equal to 50 percent. As a result, these lakes were fraught with the risk of extinction.

The disappearance of lakes or decrease in the area of lakes was primarily attributable to change in land use within the lakes or their catchments. Deforestation, climate change and change in dynamics of catchment areas also contributed to disappearance of lakes in J&K

“The geo-coordinates of the 63 audit sampled lakes provided by the EE&RSD were plotted (October 2022) by audit on Google Earth Pro on various timelines. It was found that seven lakes were not visible or had almost dried up,” the CAG report mentioned.

They included Rakh-e-Arth; Sethergund Numbal; Marhama; Devpursar; Mahtan; Chandargar Numbal and Galwal Talao.

These seven were among the 11 lakes that had disappeared as per the analysis of EE&RSD data. There were land use changes in Khushal Sar lake and degrading shrinking of Anchar lake.

Audit also conducted (November 2022) field verification- along with concerned Tehsildars- of lakes and noticed that out of seven lakes, Audit conducted joint physical verification of the four lakes which were found to be dried up.

The lake areas were covered with weed, plantation and vegetation and roads had been constructed through lake areas.

The observation, as per the report, was also corroborated by the EE&RSD data which showed that these lakes had disappeared during 2014-20.