Kashmir's Rivers Are Running Out Of Space

By Hidayat Bukhari

Floods in Kashmir are not accidents of nature. They are the visible outcome of how rivers, lakes, and wetlands have been treated over generations.

The Jhelum was once a lifeline, carrying snowmelt and rain through Srinagar into Wular Lake. Canals spread its waters, irrigating fields and replenishing marshes. The Flood Spill Channel, cut over a century ago, protected the city by diverting excess flow.

Today, this system exists mostly in memory.

Wetlands have been claimed for housing, canals buried under roads, and flood channels blocked by construction. Every heavy rain is now a gamble between survival and disaster.

The Jhelum's geography makes it both a lifeline and a threat.

Between Sangam and Wular, the river drops barely a centimetre per 100 metres, one of the flattest gradients in South Asia. Water does not drain quickly. It spreads across the floodplain.

Until the 1990s, the Srinagar stretch of the Jhelum could carry roughly 45,000 cusecs, with the Flood Spill Channel adding another 12,000. Wular Lake, Asia's largest freshwater lake, acted as a giant sponge.

Together, these systems absorbed floods, released them slowly, and protected the city.

But now, these numbers tell a different story: the Jhelum's capacity is down by a third. The FSC discharges half its historical load. Wular has shrunk by 70 square kilometres. Dal's littoral wetlands are one-third smaller. Hokersar, once the largest marsh in the valley, has halved in size. Anchar, a key lake in the flood chain, continues to disappear.

These figures are drawn from government reports, remote sensing studies, and Ramsar site inventories. They show hydrology stripped of its buffers and explain why Srinagar floods so easily.

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