Anchar Lake reduced to cesspool

Bilal Bashir Bhat
Srinagar, Jan 06 (KNB): Once the beauty of state’s summer capital Srinagar, the Anchar Lake is a picture perfect example of how a world famous water body due to inefficient governance gets destroyed.
Anchar Lake once the renowned lake is located in Soura area of Srinagar city at a distance of 10 kilometers from Srinagar city centre. Some decades back andhar used to be famous tourism and fishing spot. This lake has been the worst hit by growing human encroachments and also official apathy to a large extent as a result it is now more a cesspool.



Noor Muhammad , a local resident states – “Anchar Lake is in very bad condition as the lake now has been reduced to marshy land and most of it stands encroached. On the otherhand, the menace of pollution and the discharge of untreated effluents besides encroachments have contaminated the lake. The rich and diverse flora and fauna that once grew in the Anchar Lake is extinct and the lake is now infested with weeds. The water here has contaminated due to direct dumping of sewage and waste material in the lake from human settlements. It is high time that authorities save Anchar Lake from catastrophe.”
It is painful to note Hardly any flora and fauna now thrives on this lake and this is quiet a sickening development for the people of Kashmir as the loss of this valuable water body means a national loss.
At the macroscopic paradigm, the wretched condition of Anchar lake clearly points out towards the dying condition of water bodies in the valley of Kashmir and calls for a vibrant action from the stakeholders to save this lake and other water bodies from doom and gloom of destruction. (KNB)