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    • Posts Tagged ‘environment’

    High Court Pulls up Kashmir Govt Over Wullar Conservation Project

    wullar

    SRINAGAR: Pulling the state government for not taking the Wullar Lake conversation project with gravity, Jammu and Kashmir High Court also wanted to know why allocation for the conversation of the water body was reduced from Rs 386 crore to just Rs 120 crore. After perusing the latest status report filed by the Wullar Conservation and Management Authority (WCMA), a Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice, M M Kumar and Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey observed that the utilisation of funds allocated to WCMA...

    Posted 6 days ago.

    Shift Houseboats to New Location in Kashmir's Dal Lake: HC

    houseboats-kashmir

    Ishfaq Tantry SRINAGAR: Observing that the undertaking given by houseboat owners to the court has been observed in breach, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the government to give effect to the plan developed by the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) about shifting of houseboats on the Dal Lake from their present position. The court, however, observed that it hopes and trusts that the authorities concerned would devise an objective method while shifting the...

    Posted 10 days ago.

    Anchar, Once Kashmir's Treasured Tourist Spot, in Its Death Throes

    anchar lake

    Rahiba R Parveen SRINAGAR: Anchaar lake in Kashmir, which was once a treasured tourist spot and home to exotic migratory birds and fishes, is in its last throes today. It has now shrunk to thrice its size which was estimated to be 19.5 sq kilometers by Sir Walter Lawrence, a British official, who was posted in Kashmir more than a century ago. On the boundaries of the Lake huge concrete houses have been erected. Open sewage flows into the lake and garbage dumps, animals' carcasses and heaps...

    Posted 11 days ago.

    Delay in Rehab of Dal Dwellers Delays Conservation of Ailing Lake

    Kashmiri woman walks on footbridge in interior of Dal Lake during autumn in Srinagar

    Ashiq Hussain SRINAGAR: Failing to complete development projects on time is nothing unusual for any state government across the country. But in Jammu and Kashmir, the project aimed to conserve Dal Lake by rehabilitation and relocation of lake dwellers has created a record of sorts in delay. Of the 11,000 families estimated in 2007 to be rehabilitated within three years, only 60 families have been relocated till now, meaning a work shortfall percentage of 99.8%. In 2007, the Lakes and...

    Posted 11 days ago.

    Mountains of Rubbish Threaten Kashmir Resorts

    pahalgam3

    Mujtaba Wani GULMARG: Tonnes of litter dumped at Kashmir's  showpiece Himalayan resorts are threatening a fragile alpine  ecology and endangering villagers dependent on their glacial waters. Litter bugs could also do irreparable damage to the  emerging reputation of the zone's picturesque high-altitude meadows, forests and peaks as one of Asia's best adventure ski areas, and beautiful valley of Pahalgam environmental activists warn. "Mountains of rubbish are killing Gulmarg and...

    Posted 27 days ago.

    Chinese Fish Fails to Clean Kashmir's Dal Lake

    grass carp

    Kainaat Mushtaq SRINAGAR: After men and machines for decades failed to clean up the mirror-calm Dal Lake to remove choking weeds, lily pads and other water plants that have tarnished the image of the famed tourist attraction. Scientists in 2004 hit upon a new low-cost idea: flood the dying lake with thousands of weed-eating Chinese grass carp. They started it as an experiment and thought this could be the solution they have been looking for. A small number of the Chinese fish, which...

    Posted 29 days ago.

    Kashmir Houseboats on Dal Lake go Green

    Houseboat-_Dal_Lake,_srinagar_Kashmir

    Houseboats fix bio tanks with toilets to treat waste using Australian technology, in a bid to save the lake from pollution Ishfaq-ul-Hassan SRINAGAR: The famous Dal Lake has gotten a new lease of life as traditional houseboats are now adopting eco-friendly technology to save the ailing water body. For the first time in 125 years, two houseboats have become trend-setters by adopting the eco-friendly technology to save the Dal...

    Posted 29 days ago.

    Bad Power Deal Leaves Kashmir In The Dark

    power shortage

    Baba Umar SRINAGAR: "If there is one thing I want to see in my life, it is electricity,” says 35-year-old Hafiz Khan as he smokes traditional Kashmiri hubble-bubble in the smoke-filled kitchen. Every night, in his two-room mud-and brick house, Khan’s family of seven eats by the light of a kerosene lantern carefully set low so that the flame lasts for seven minutes. This is all the time the tribal family gets to finish dinner. His son Shahid Ali Khan, a Class 10 student, uses the...

    Posted 36 days ago.

    '22,000 Kanals Forests Land Cleared of Encroachment'

    forest

    SRINAGAR: The total area of the forests land in Jammu and Kashmir is 20,230 square kilometres, and a 133.60 square kilometre-area of it has been encroached upon. Minister for forests Mian Altaf Ahmed told the Legislative Assembly in Jammu that the forest department has taken several measures to retrieve land encroached upon. "An area of 127.10 hectares (2542 Kanals) of forests land has been retrieved from 2005 onwards in Jammu region and 987.01 hectares (19740.2 Kanals) in Kashmir region had been evicted from 2007...

    Posted 45 days ago.

    "What the Nile is to Egypt, Wullar is to Kashmir": But The Lake is Fast Dying

    wullar

    Kainaat Mushtaq WULLAR: "What the Nile is to Egypt, Wullar is to Kashmir." That's how a famous Kashmiri poet once described the exquisite emerald green Wullar, a freshwater lake surrounded by giant pine and willow trees in north Kashmir. Local officials, ignoring the more obvious claims of Siberia's Lake Baikal and other contenders, fondly refer to Wular as Asia's largest freshwater lake. But decades of neglect and years a bloody insurgency that has converted the idyllic mountain state...

    Posted 47 days ago.