The glorious dead lake

Dal lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India, has a shoreline of about 15.5 km. Dal used to be a breathtaking freshwater lake till a couple of decades back. Now the capital city empties its wastes into it. Illegal floating gardens and inland farming have added to the lake’s woes. The Indian government has made massive investments (approximately US$275 million) to restore the lake’s original splendor. But poor accountability shows in the declining health of the lake.

Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, head of the Earth Sciences Department at Kashmir University says 32% of the lake is severely degraded, 48% suffers medium degradation and about 20% is relatively clean. The lake, which has shrunk from 31 to 24 square km between the years 1859 and 2014 faces multiple pressures from unplanned urbanisation, high population growth, nutrient load from intensive agriculture and tourism.