Sheikh Saqlain

Wullar, one of Asia’s largest freshwater lakes, located deep in the Himalayas, was once a sprawling Lake with pristine waters, but today it remains a dilapidated image of its former self, stripped of the glory and fame it once enjoyed.

The lake, loved by poets and kings, has been reduced to half of its original size. Plantation of millions of water-sucking willows and being subjected to neglect after the dawn of an armed uprising in Kashmir three decades ago, which converted the idyllic mountain state into a paradise lost, have both contributed to the Lake’s demise.

Situated at an altitude of 1,530 meters, the surface area of the Lake has decreased from 216 square kilometers in 1911 to just 104 square kilometers in 2008.

The Lake, one of Kashmir’s major tourist destinations in the past, has become muddy and weed-infested, and is ringed by a huge expanse of marshy land.

Wullar was designated a wetland of international importance in 1990 under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty that provides global cooperation for the conservation of wetland habitats.

In 1950, the Government of Jammu & Kashmir decided to plant millions of water-sucking willow trees around the Lake. This was because willow trees provide much of the wood used in the production of cricket bats and fruit boxes and are a source of firewood as well. The trees drank the Lake’s water and caused massive siltation, turning the boundaries of the lake into marshes. Encroachments by the native villagers have frequently added to the troubles of the dying lake.
The Nearly 32,000 families were dependant on the lake for their income, according to a Wetlands International study. But poverty rates in the villages in the Lake’s vicinity increased drastically after its deterioration.

The shrinking lake is still a winter home to pintails, shovellers and mallards but the cackle and honking call of whooper swans, curlews and sandhill cranes has disappeared. Instead, navy commandos in motor boats patrol the lake to keep armed rebels out.

For full story click here
https://www.ourlostparadise.com/shrinking-of-kashmirs-largest-freshwater-lake-spells-more-trouble-for-the-strife-torn-region/