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SRINAGAR, Indian Kashmir, Jun 14 (IPS) – Abdul Lateef Dar, a 45-year-old man residing on the outskirts of Kashmir’s famend Dal Lake, depends on the lake’s fish for meals and revenue.
On the morning of Might 26, 2023, Dar adopted his normal routine, getting ready his fishing instruments and heading towards the lake. Initially, he observed just a few lifeless fish floating on the lake’s floor, which he thought-about a standard sight. Nonetheless, because the morning haze lifted, Dar regarded on the lake with horror. The lake was crammed with 1000’s of lifeless fish, resembling dry and withered branches. Dar urgently referred to as out to fellow fishers and confirmed them the distressing scene.
Quickly, lots of of fishermen and their households gathered alongside the lake’s shore, witnessing the devastating scale of the fish mortality.
Dar recounted how he started fishing along with his father at 14, counting on the lake for his livelihood. He expressed deep anguish on the devastation. In a single day, 1000’s of fish had perished, dealing a extreme blow to his livelihood and that of numerous others who depend upon fishing and promoting fish out there.
“However I’ve by no means ever seen such devastation – it’s like a doomsday. Not lots of however 1000’s of fish are lifeless in a single day. That is the heaviest blow to my livelihood, and there are 1000’s like me whose livelihood is immediately dependent upon catching fish and promoting them out there. What’s going to we promote now, and what’s there to catch?” Dar lamented.
The Hanjis neighborhood has lived round Dal Lake for hundreds of years, and its principal occupation is fishing. They’re thought-about the poorest neighborhood within the valley – they usually solely personal just a few belongings and reside a easy life. Due to their reliance on fishing since historic occasions, the neighborhood, estimated at about 40 000 folks, is extra susceptible than the others in Kashmir’s native populace.
In Srinagar, Jammu, and Kashmir, Dal Lake is a well-known and iconic physique of water with huge cultural and ecological worth. It’s incessantly known as Kashmir’s “jewel.”
The formation of Dal Lake is believed to have been triggered because of tectonic motion and glacial processes. It’s surrounded by magnificent mountains and has a floor space of round 18 sq. kilometers.
The mass fish deaths widespread panic among the many locals and significantly these households whose livelihood is immediately depending on the lake.
The area’s authorities mentioned its scientific wing had made an preliminary examination to establish the reason for fish mortality and mentioned the deaths have been triggered on account of “thermal stratification”– a change within the temperature at completely different depths of the lake.
Bashir Ahmad Bhat, probably the most senior officer of Kashmir’s Lakes and Conservation Administration Authority, informed IPS that the samples had been collected extra evaluation is ongoing.
“Though we’ve collected samples for an intensive evaluation, the fish (appeared to have) died because of warmth stratification, a standard prevalence. There isn’t a should be alarmed; fish as little as two to a few inches have perished. We now have collected samples of the lifeless fish within the analysis lab of our division to search out out the exact purpose why the fish within the lake died; we’re awaiting the official outcomes,” Bhat mentioned.
Nonetheless, for consultants and analysis students, fish mortality within the water physique could possibly be a prelude to extra troubled occasions forward.
Zahid Ahmad Qazi, a analysis scholar, informed IPS that the spike in air pollution stage is severely affecting the lake’s biodiversity and is inflicting enormous stress to the lake’s fish fauna. He says the unchecked building across the lake and liquid and stable wastes going into the lake’s water has begun to point out drastic impacts.
A analysis paper printed by the Indian Journal of Extension Education in 2022 highlighted the identical reality.
“Over time, the water high quality of Dal Lake has deteriorated, inflicting adversarial impacts on its fish fauna. The endemic Schizothorax fish populations have declined significantly owing to the air pollution and introduction of exotics. On the identical time, the entire fish manufacturing of the lake has not elevated a lot over the previous couple of a long time. The shortage of correct governance, coverage laws, and coordination between authorities businesses and fishers provides extra unfavourable affect to this,” the analysis paper concluded.
The Division of Lakes and Waterways Improvement Authority, tasked with the safety of the lakes in Kashmir, indicated there have been numerous plans underway to save lots of the Dal Lake and its biodiversity. The division, in response to its officers, is uprooting water lilies with conventional strategies and weeding the lake utilizing the newest equipment in order that the floor is free of weeds and its fish manufacturing will increase.
Nonetheless, in 2018 research done by Humaira Qadri and A. R. Yousuf from the Division of Environmental Science, College of Kashmir, the federal government, regardless of spending USD 3 million on the conservation of the lake thus far, there was no seen enchancment in its situation. “A scarcity of correct administration and restoration plan and the incidence of engineered however ecologically unsound administration practices have led to a failure within the conservation efforts,” reveals the analysis.
It concluded that conservation efforts have proved to be a failure. It provides that the apathy of the managing authorities has resulted within the deterioration of the lake.
“There’s a must formulate a correct ecologically sound administration plan for the lake encompassing all of the environmental parts of the lake ecosystem and thus assist to preserve the lake in an actual ecological sense,” the analysis acknowledged.
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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service