Ishfaq Tantry
SRINAGAR: All hotels at famous ski resort Gulmarg are functioning without any sewage treatment plant (STP) to manage the toilet waste.
In addition, the tonnes of solid waste and garbage generated at the resort goes untreated as at present there is no mechanism or facility in place to manage the waste at Gulmarg, not even an incinerator.
Though the only five star hotel at Gulmarg has installed an STP, it has not been made functional yet despite...
Posted 4 days ago.
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...
Posted 10 days ago.
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...
Posted 15 days ago.
Ashiq Hussain
SRINAGAR: Presence of many government offices deep inside the Dachigam National Park in Srinagar is threatening the survival of the highly endangered Royal Kashmir Stag – Hangul.
The 141 sq km Park in the lap of Zabarwan hills is one of the highly protected wildlife sanctuaries as it holds “the last viable population of red deer or Hangul in the world” after union government declared it National Park in 1981.
Conservationists warn of threat...
Posted 21 days ago.
Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR: Toxic chemicals sprayed in orchards to prevent crop diseases are killing black bears in the mountainous Kashmir valley, worrying the region's wildlife conservationists.
Most of the state's orchard area (347223 hectares) is situated in the valley, known for its apples and pears.
Every year until the harvest season farmers spray trees with many pesticides and insecticides including Endosulphan, a chemical known to...
Posted 25 days ago.
Nuha Fazili
SRINAGAR: After shrinking of their natural habitat, wild bears and leopards are wandering into Kashmir villages and have killed nearly 200 people and maimed thousands since 2005, a report said on Thursday.
The report indicates that man-animal conflict has shown a drastic increase in the region after authorities erected a fence along Kashmir's border with Pakistan designed to stop militant...
Posted 29 days ago.
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...
Posted 31 days ago.
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...
Posted 33 days ago.
Mujtaba Wani
SRINAGAR: Kashmir's Kolahoi glacier, which is the largest in the valley and which also feeds its main river, is melting faster than other Himalayan glaciers, glaciologists warn.
This trend could put under threat the water supply to hundreds of thousands of people in the region.
Experts say rising temperatures are rapidly shrinking Himalayan glaciers, underscoring the effects of climate change that has caused temperatures in the mountainous region...
Posted 36 days ago.
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...
Posted 51 days ago.
