Unprecedented steps are needed to create a basic framework for conservation and restoration of the lake.
Akshay Kaul
The 1990s saw a sharp reduction in the quality of lakes, rivers and other water bodies – particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. For us, the 1990s in Kashmir also reflect a watershed moment of a different sort that had a significant impact on the environmental legacy of the valley. The causes of lake degradation are quite similar when you look at them, especially in developing countries. Lakes are complex living systems because their health and water quality depend on both internal conditions as well as, and probably more significantly, external conditions in their larger catchment region. The release of often untreated wastewater from the catchment, runoff from adjoining agricultural areas or industrial waste is slowly released into the soil.
In agricultural soils, nitrate-N can easily drain down through the root zone and enter the ground and surface waters. Nitrate-N renders groundwater unsafe for drinking when concentrations surpass acceptable limits. It stimulates phytoplankton productivity in surface waters, widespread depletion of oxygen availability to plants, biodiversity loss, and hazardous algal blooms that can impact even fisheries. In various regions of the world, these loads have different tendencies. Although loads of nitrogen can also contribute, anthropogenic loads of phosphorus are often what cause lake eutrophication.
Researchers think that the Dal Lake was once an expanded oxbow in the flood plain of river Jhelum instead of being formed by gradual shrinking of a glacial lake. This is based on the lake’s location near river Jhelum and studies of its form, shape, and structure. Many people, like D.N. Wadia, viewed the Kashmir valley as a level Pleistocene alluvial plain from which the lakes of Kashmir were produced. We can only guess where it came from, but since the 1990s, when the National Lakes Conservation Plan (NLCP) and the Dal Lake Conservation Plan (DLCP) were created, there have been clear efforts to fix it up.
1997 was a watershed year when the Lakes and Water Development Authority (LAWDA) was created, now renamed the Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA).
The Dal Lake Conservation Plan that was made had various action plans for pollution abatement and it included addressing the encroachment problem. The slow progress in improving the situation resulted in the filing of petitions in the Supreme Court in the years 2000 and 2002 on behalf of the people of Kashmir by two different people from the valley. The court referred it to the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir as a PIL, which led to the creation of a three-member committee to look into the condition of the lake in October 2005.
More than Rs. 298 crores were given in 2005 for the interception and diversion of pollutants entering the lake, the construction of six STPs, desilting, de-weeding, clearance of encroachments in the project area, etc. Up until 2006-07, the central government had provided the project with 70 crore rupees to be completed by March 2010, which went on until 2013. Since then, huge amounts of money have been granted from time to time for various projects, like STP, de-weeding, siltation control, relocation of Dal dwellers, and land acquisition. Various committees, including a Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Committee, were formed to look at it as a national asset and concern. Despite the fact that the mandate is clear and the intentions are strong at the highest levels, progress and processes on the ground have been slow, fragmented, and uncoordinated, making it difficult to demonstrate any significant improvement in water quality.
Enraptured by the beauty of the Dal, Sir Francis Edward Younghusband writes in his book, Kashmir: “Numerous kingfishers of brilliant sky-blue plumage flash across the water; and gorgeous yellow-golden orioles dart from tree to tree. Clumps of noble Chinar trees with the Kashmir chalet houses are grouped along the banks, and often overhang the mirror waters. Orchards of quince trees with their delicate pink and white blossom and fields of brilliant yellow mustard line the shores. Cows and their calves, sheep and their little lambs, graze on the fresh green grass; and pretty but dirty little children, geese and goslings, ducks, and ducklings, dabble in the water, and all tell of the rich abundant life now bursting into being.”
The once-pristine lake has been the subject of numerous attempts at restoration since the 1971 Master Plan. The first Master Plan Srinagar (1971–1991) acknowledged the existence of flood absorption basins and water bodies in its east, west, and south. The conservation-oriented tourist development plan was developed by Stein in 1970, along with the Vastu Shilpa Foundation. It founder architect Doshi focused on working at the Dalgate area and organising the shops along the promenade till the Shankaracharya hills. Stein’s plans had little to do with the actual conservation of the lake’s water quality or ecology but with his role as a planner for the redevelopment of the area as mandated by the then-chief minister, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah. The plan was more to reorganise the houseboats in Dal Lake and the floating gardens. His scheme also included clustered development near Chasma Shahi and Nishat.
A New Zealand-based company, The Enex Consortium Report (1978), was recruited to develop a proposal for Dal conservation. The Enex report made several crucial recommendations, one of which was to construct an earth bund to isolate the lake’s open water parts from the floating garden area. It also recommended to reforest the area surrounding the Dal lake catchments, manage grazing to restore the area’s ground cover and create a water basin to contain most of the silt and insoluble nutrients entering the lake from Tulail Nala on the north shore. For connections to the houseboats, it recommended to construct trunk sewage, power, and water pipes on the proposed bund separating the floating gardens from the freshwater region. Also, rearranging the houseboats’ mooring area was recommended, as had already been suggested by Stein in 1970.
The UNESCO Mission Report on Environmental Degradation in Kashmir and the Dal Lake Development Report in the Valley of Kashmir (Riddle, 1983) followed Enex proposals which, if worked upon, would have made an impact on the lake’s water quality. The most thorough strategy can be found in the last Conservation and Management Plan for Dal and Nigeen lakes, undertaken in 2013 by the Alternate Hydro Energy Centre (AHEC), IIT Roorkee. With an emphasis on sustainable, environmentally responsible, and economically advantageous methods that demanded least number of interventions and displacement, the mandate was clearly stated to rehabilitate the lake and its ecology. The catchment management plan and the restoration and development plan, which addressed the greater context of the watershed management, were divided into two categories called ‘interventions’.
The J&K state administration invited the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Manitoba, Canada, to investigate the issue of lake deterioration in March 2018. The Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) assessment technique was utilised by IISD. The paper makes assumptions about some of the major problems, such as the urgent need for renovations at the sewage treatment facilities in and near Srinagar and their frequent overflows during heavy downpours. During outages, sewage treatment facilities and pumping stations frequently shut down. One of the largest sources of untreated sewage is thought to come from the houseboats. Untreated sewage inflow is accelerated by the encroachment of squatters living on and around the lake’s edge. Additionally, the nearby wetlands are being destroyed by these lake residents. These populations continue to fill in areas of the wetland, construct shanties and live near the lake’s edge despite the availability of compensation funds for relocation and social housing in other sections of Srinagar.
Dal has a sizable catchment area; estimations from reliable sources place it at 337.17 sq. km., with the greatest portion being made up of Telbal, Dachigam, Zabarwan hills, Srinagar city (North and Central), and the lake itself, totaling 18.5 sq. km. Dal Lake receives water from about 10 to 12 smaller canals and it also contains several springs. The lake’s water is discharged by the Dalgate exit and Nallah Amir Khan channels, two enduring outflow routes. Dal Lake was reported to be 31 square kilometres in 1859 and 24 square kilometres in 2013.However, it has not decreased significantly since then. According to more recent studies, the lake’s open water extent is only 11.5 square kilometres. Floating gardens cover a sizable (20%) portion of Dal Lake, leaving only 59% of the lake’s surface as open water.
The lake has a rich cultural past that includes hamlets and floating gardens. Some of the old houses in these hamlets are more than 150 years old. We are given to understand that new construction is completely banned. These small hamlets in the lake that would once collect night soil from the old city, dry it up and use it as manure have turned into mini settlements with motorable roads, electricity and voting rights, except for a proper waste disposal system for both solid and wastewater discharge.
The reproduced maps of 1859–60 show primarily baghs—Batmazar, Ashai Bagh, Burra Bagh, and Lalla Shah Ke Takkar—in the lake on the west of the Oont Kadal. The 1890 gazetteer mentions them. It also mentions the growing of vegetables and melons along the lake edges. If one looks at the land use transformation decadal maps of the Dal itself since 1859, the built-up area within the lake has increased 40 times, from 0.05 square kilometres to more than two square kilometres in 2013. With little to no sewage treatment facilities, there are currently an estimated 58 communities within the lake, mostly in the Lokut Dal and Gagribal regions. It may be necessary to estimate the true population of people who live within the lake in the hamlets and in dongas, houseboats and the abutting land to carry out any meaningful conservation and management.
The Hindustan Times is said to have reported on the September 1950 floods, which claimed 100 lives and wrecked more than 15,000 dwellings. It is thought that to drain the Dal lake, the level of Nalla Amir Khan had to be decreased and then the new land appeared. Since then, more land has been reclaimed by using mud and silt from the lake and aggregating it with poplar plantings that camouflage the new dwellings.
The lake is used to cultivate a lot of vegetables and fishing is another source of income in addition to tourism. Naturally, there has been a significant increase in the discharge of phosphates and nitrates into the lake, which has altered the ecology completely. The increase in land mass created through reclamation has resulted in greater use of fertilizers, which increases the nutrient load and weeds within the lake. Findings from analysis of land cover and land use maps by Kashmir University indicate that 32% of the lake falls under severe degradation and 48% under medium degradation. 20% of the waters are relatively clean.
The Lokut Dal, the Bod Dal, the Nigeen and Hazratbal basins have historically been used to categorise the lake’s water. Studies by Earth Science Department, Kashmir University, comparing the years 1979 and 2014, revealed that throughout those 37 years, the lake’s nitrate (nitrogen) had increased 15 times and its phosphates had increased 27 times. From 2.91 sq km in 1859 to 8.64 sq km in 2013, the floating aquatic gardens, which are vegetation on the lake’s surface, have tripled in size. The construction of the foreshore road in the 1970s separated a significant portion of the lake’s marsh land from the current lake system, resulting in a significant loss of marshy area on the lake’s northern edge.
Although there are significant anthropocentric activities around the lake that need to be addressed, the catchment’s relatively fewer steep areas are mainly used for agrarian, plantation, horticultural and built-up land uses, all of which have seen an increase in anthropocentric activity over the past few decades. Luckily, there aren’t any significant polluting industries around the lake or in its catchment areas. Dal lake receives considerable anthropogenic nutrient loads, which may contribute to or hasten its eutrophication.
Like any urban lake, the Dal is severely harmed by human activities in the hamlets, agricultural practices inside the lake and its catchment and untreated sewage flow from the catchment, all of which have a negative impact on the lake’s water quality. The hilly regions are largely covered in natural vegetation and arid land, whereas the mountainous regions are primarily covered in woodlands, meadows, and scrublands. Most of the surface runoff that carries degraded soil and sediments originates in these rocky, steep catchment areas. These silt loads often contain nitrates and phosphorus.
In the early 1990s, the Republic of China worked towards cleaning its lakes that had been polluted due to sewage discharge, agricultural and industrial discharges, or leaching. Much like the Dal Story, it also met a similar fate largely due to the failure to create an effective, cross-jurisdictional management system to address major externalities associated with aquatic ecosystem rehabilitation. In 2007, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) began to look closely at the issues of lake rehabilitation with the rapid appraisal of various ADB-assisted rehabilitation projects. It looked at more than 28 lakes as case studies where restoration of the lakes had been undertaken successfully.
Though there were different factors, and each case had a unique combination of factors, the analysis highlighted four key elements for success: strong and consistent political leadership, integrated planning and analysis, effective management structures and financial engineering to address externalities. If we really look at the issues of the Dal lake, it is more of an administration issue and one that requires continuity of political will, institutional empowerment and accountability to create a success story much like the Metro in India under Sridharan, the communication revolution under Sam Pitroda or the Amul revolution under Dr. V. Kurien. However, lakes are a more complex systems than an infrastructure, task, or assignment. It needs long-term vision and multidisciplinary partnerships to bring about a real change.
A long-term partnership between CLMA and sociologists, anthropologists, urban and spatial planners, ecologists, hydrologists, seismologists, hydrogeologists, social scientists, landscape architects and urban designers with partnerships with universities, industry, CSIR institutions, national and international professionals, and academicians with proven expertise would be ideal because lakes are complex, interconnected living systems that demand a multidisciplinary approach and expertise. A noteworthy example is the WWQA Ecosystem, which was formed in 2021 and is managed by a core group that includes the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, the World Bank Group, IHE-Delft, Wageningen University and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH).
However, what needs to be formulated as the first step is a chronological collation of the research papers, studies, various reports, and recommendations from different committees and reports since 1970. The success of Dal conservation and management would depend entirely on the dynamism and experience of the person leading the Lake Conservation and Management Authority and the level of the professionals who form the team. Unless the mandate is to seek the best professionals, the Dal Lake restoration may meet the same fate that it has since the 1970s. LCMA will benefit from the leadership of a domain specialist. Its current setup needs to be upgraded along with a focus on capacity building.
For Dal lake conservation and restoration, unprecedented steps are needed to create a basic framework. The key steps would be: (i) the development of a coherent and comprehensive master plan; (ii) the creation of an administrative structure that places most of the catchment within the jurisdiction of a single administrative body; (iii) the building and upgrading of the capacity of the Dal and Nigeen Conservation and Lake Management Authority (CLMA) as the institution with prime authority and responsibility for managing the lake, apart from the technical studies and work that would be needed within the lake and its catchment area.
Simple turnaround stories are available and visible. This writer’s last visit to Gangtok in Sikkim was an eye-opener. The flight arrived from Delhi into Bagdora and passed through the state of West Bengal before the long ride into Sikkim. Even at the border that separates the two states, the marked difference is visible. There is litter and plastic, rampant pesticide usage and unorganised parking in the West Bengal region. You enter a region free of plastic and pesticides as soon as you arrive in Sikkim.
Sikkim’s Chief Minister, Pawan Chamling, declared his intent for the region to become India’s first organic state in 2003. The state introduced the ‘organic’ action plan in 2010, outlining the steps to take to achieve the goal of making the entire state organic. The strategy was successful when Sikkim proclaimed itself the first organic state in the world in 2015.
The state government had well-defined goals and strategies for achieving them, as well as a strong political commitment and consistency in its policies. To accomplish a full transformation of the entire food system, the plan mixed legislative limits, including a phased prohibition on artificial fertilisers and pesticides with aid and incentives. Since certification was viewed as an essential component of the transition, between 2010 and 2014, 80% of the funds were allocated to enhancing the capabilities of the farmers, rural service providers, and certifying organisations as well as helping farmers obtain certification. Although it takes a lot of work in the backend, declaring the lake catchment as organic is the simplest, most cost-effective and a long-term strategy to reduce the nitrate and phosphorus load in the lake.
Much like Sikkim, Bhutan’s success story, which spans an area that is more than double that of the Kashmir valley, is one that should be studied and emulated. It is a tale of having a vision and putting it into action with precise guidelines and plans. Again, these programmes and revolutions are made feasible by strong political will and empowering and enabling mechanisms. Bhutan, a tiny Himalayan country, is now carbon negative. Today, trees cover more than 70% of the nation. Bhutan’s extensive tree cover has made it a carbon sink.
The success stories from Indore and Surat are equally remarkable, much like Colombo, Sri Lanka, which is spotlessly clean. Surat city’s transformation from a garbage-strewn mess to one of the cleanest cities is a story worth remembering. Today, Surat and Indore Municipal Corporations are two of the most professionally run civic bodies in the country. Policy initiatives and programme funding have provided impetus to urban local bodies. Structural and financial reforms in the SMC lead to transformation.
In India, comprehensive lake restoration is in its infancy especially the urban water bodies or urban lakes. Very few technical proven models are available that may be emulated directly, more so for cold climate regions. Delhi Jal Board’s coherent and comprehensive Master Plan for the pilot Rajokri, lake cleaning project in Delhi is another example. The Team was led by a dynamic CEO, professionals and CSIR organization. The wastewater inflow model was based on decentralized wastewater system treatment developed by NEERI. The success was acknowledged by the National Green Tribunal, and later recommended to the states for scaling it up countrywide. Bangalore and Coimbatore are working on cleaning up their lakes for some time with measured success. It is important to understand that Delhi had more than 500 ponds and lakes combined that have been lost to urbanization. The active engagement of the civil society and taking up the cause with the judiciary is the primary cause of restoration and revival of these ponds by the government mandated by the court.
Lake restoration must be understood as a continuous process. Creation of Conservation and Lake Management Authority and Comprehensive Lake Management Plan for Dal Lake would not in itself be everything. The application of economic incentives to change people behaviour in the catchment with focus on facilitating green entrepreneurship involving youth may provide livelihood-based sustainable economic solution.
Akshay Kaul is a renowned landscape architect known for his environmentally sensitive work. He is a recipient of various national and international awards.
