Saving Dal Lake

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha's words this week about Dal Lake becoming cleaner due to conservation efforts over the last five years offer a glimmer of hope. More than a third of the water body has reportedly been rejuvenated, with its open expanse increased to over 20 square kilometres for the first time, the LG said. The administration's decision to join hands with citizens as part of Sewa Parv is welcome. Dal Lake, after all, is not just a tourist postcard, it is the very soul of Kashmir, and an ecological, cultural, and economic lifeline.

But despite some improvement in the lake's condition, there is a long way to go before even a modicum of its pristine glory is restored. The lake is choked by sewage, plastic, and unchecked human activity, and as a result continues to gasp for survival. As the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Committee (PCC) has noted in a report, untreated waste from some 910 houseboats still flows directly into its waters. This is not an aberration, it is the norm. Despite decades of cleanup projects, cosmetic dredging, and expensive lily-clearing operations, the fundamentals have not changed.

The problem is structural. Around 50,000 people continue to live within the lake's catchment, including hundreds of families on floating hamlets and some 750 houseboats moored on its waters. Encroachments and unregulated urbanisation have eaten away at Dal's green belt, while sewage from growing colonies and agricultural effluents steadily pour into the lake. Tourism, vital to Kashmir's economy, has added its own share of pressure, with hotels, restaurants, and other infrastructure mushrooming along the 15.5-kilometre Boulevard.

It is not that governments, both state and central, have ignored Dal. Plans to rehabilitate residents date back to 1987. Conservation and resettlement strategies have been run in parallel for three decades. Yet, while conservation has limped along, rehabilitation has barely moved. Each government has preferred to announce a fresh plan, clean a patch of lilies, or commission another study. The result is the same: Dal survives, but only just.

This is where the current government must show greater resolve. The recent cleanliness drive should not remain a symbolic gesture or a seasonal exercise tied to events. What the lake needs is a sustained, transparent, and accountable effort to tackle the sources of pollution. Untreated sewage must be stopped. Rehabilitation of lake dwellers must be addressed humanely but firmly, without endless deferment. Strict land-use regulation, community participation, and scientific monitoring should form the backbone of the strategy.

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