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Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 11 September 2015

BANDIPORA: Under the 13th Finance Commission award, Rs 120 Cr was approved for conservation and management of Wullar Lake. An amount of Rs. 60 crore has been released by the Government of India so far. For implementing the plan, a Wullar Conservation and Management Authority (WUCMA) was also set up by the State Government in 2012.

Dredging work in the Lake is going on in full swing and over 28000 trees have been removed from the water body till date. Further an amount of Rs 12720 crore is required for maintaining water level in the Lake at 1575 MSL during winter. This information was given to the Committee on Assurances of J&K Legislative Assembly, headed by MLA Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen. The Committee today inspected the ongoing conservation programme of the world famous Wular Lake.

Legislators Zahoor AhmadMir, Kamal Aroora and Kuldeep Raj , Chief Conservator of Forest, Kashmir Nisar Ahmad Darzi, also holding the charge of Chief Executive Officer of the Authority,  Coordinators (WUMA) Rashid Naqash and Ali Mohammad besides other senior officers from Forest, WUCMA and Revenue department accompanied the Committee.

The Committee was told that around 24 lakh trees in Wular need to be removed. It was informed that dredging work is going on and over 7 lakh cubic meters (CuM) of silt has been removed from the lake areas up to ending March 2015.

The Committee was informed that for fixing the boundaries of the Lake, 1150 demarcation pillars have been erected on the ground and the department of Environment and Remote Sensing has been entrusted the work of monitoring the project using high resolution satellite imageries (HRSI). Topographical survey of the Lake using ETS & GPS was carried out over an area of 7 km to generate the detailed profile for quantification of silt to be dredged out from the Lake for increasing its water holding capacity, the Committee was informed.

While receiving brief on the project, Chairman, Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen asked the concerned officers to take care of the bio diversity especially the migratory birds visiting the Lake. He said the funds so far released are insufficient to achieve the goal and asked the CEO to come up with a revised demand of funds so that Committee will write to the Government of India for increasing the yearly allocation which, at present, is only Rs 20 crore annually.

Underlining need for linkage of Jhelum Flood Management Programme and Wullar Conservation and Management plan, the Committee said that need is to run both the programmes simultaneously to achieve better results.  The Committee also asked WUCMA to work in close coordination with I&FC department so that the purpose of the Wullar conservation programme is truly realised.