Government on Monday admitted that Wular Lake has been shrinking due to illegal human settlement over the past few decades.
In a written reply to Zafar Iqbal Manhas, Minister for Forests, Choudhary Lal Singh said the net demarcated area of Wular Lake is 130 square kilometres, out of which an area of approximately one square kilometre is under illegal human settlements for the past few decades.
“The Wular Lake receives approximately 80 percent water from rivers and streams from the south, central and most parts of North Kashmir. The water received by the Wular is full of silt load which has accumulated in parts of the lake during past many decades,” he said.
The minister said the Wular conservation plan aims to de-silt an area of 27 square kilometres of critically silted area, out of which focus of de-silting is presently confined to seven square kilometre area.
He said an area of more than one square kilometre has been completely desilted so far.
“During Phase-I, dredging of the critically silted area of Wular lake has been carried out to the extent of over 9.88 lakh cubic meters (including the associated feeder channel Naaz Nallah) whereby an area of more than one square kilometre of the lake has been fully restored back to its original shape. Besides this, the following progress has been achieved by the WUCMA,” the minister said.
He said government had carried out digitized demarcation of the boundary all along the lake’s periphery in accordance with revenue records using latest GPS and remote sensing technology which has determined the exact area of the lake as 130 square kilometres.
“1452 boundary pillars have been erected on ground delineating the lake boundary from adjoining areas. 12.30 lakh saplings were planted in the highly degraded catchments areas,” the minister said.
According to the minister, more than 27 square kms of the lake is categorized as critically silted area, out of which 7 square kilometres has been prioritized for completion; and 3 to 4 years shall be required for availability of funds.
“In future, conservation project is proposed to be funded under the PM’s special package for J&K. An amount of Rs 60 crore has been earmarked for ongoing conservation works of the Wular Lake. No funds under the said package have been received till date,” the minister revealed.
Wular Lake shrinking due to human settlement: Govt
