The accumulating silt is snuffing the lake out
Dal Lake’s age mere 355 years; Report
Srinagar: At least 61,000 tons of silt is deposited every year in the Dal Lake and the life expectancy of the lake is mere 355 years, a study by University of Roorkee has revealed.
The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Conservation and Management of Dal-Nigeen Lakes has been prepared by Alternate Hydro Energy Centre of the University of Roorkee, which mentions the various facts about the Dal Lake.
“The soil is driven towards the lake from the six catchments areas falling in close proximity with the lake,” the report says.
The experts had conducted Radiometric Dating Technique and estimated the life expectancy of the lake at 355 years based on the siltation and sedimentation of the lake bed from its catchment areas.
Sources said that the project report was prepared nine years back but so far no action has been initiated by the state government on this front.
“According to the assessment, the annual soil loss to the Dal Lake works out to be 61,000 tones which is equivalent to 2.7 millimeters a year uniformly spread in the Dal Lake,’’ the report’s Catchment Management segment says. “This works out the expected life of Dal Lake to be 355 years”.
The DPR has put the total catchment around Dal Lake at 33,000 hectares and divides it into six zones which include Lake Hillside, Dal Lake, City Area, Chhatrahama, Dara and Dachigam.
Interestingly, in the year 2000, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had assigned the job of preparing a DPR as a step towards saving the Dal and Nagin Lakes.
The report includes various components like the sewerage and sewage treatment, solid waste management, relocation and rehabilitation of lake dwellers and catchment management plan. It has an elaborate chapter on each of these components and had a separate chapter on the proposed interventions.
The report says that the degradation of the catchment area is an important factor leading to various problems in the fresh water lakes and proposes appropriate catchment management plan to help save Dal and the adjoining Nigeen Lake.
“The main objective of the catchment management plan is to check soil erosion and degradation process in the catchment area and thus arrest and bring down the sediment and nutrient flow to the lake to its minimum,” the report explains.
The experts have advised several immediate proposals to arrest the silt flow into the lake which includes, Restoration of degraded forests through plantation, contour hedgerows and in-situ moisture conservation.
“Fuel, wood and fodder plantation of indigenous exotic species, Drainage line treatment through properly designed structures such as check dams, R.C.C. drop structures, Retards, Gabions, Stone walls, Trenching, Fencing, Water Tanks and Troughs and Wetting, Forage production through Silvi-pasture, pasture development and on-farm fodder development and beneficiary participation through entry point activities,” the report says are some of the measures that need to be taken.
The report says that the catchment’s topography and relief affects the drainage system, land, soil, vegetation, settlement pattern, occupation and type of land use, all of which have profound impact on the lake ecosystem. ( Rising Kashmir News)