Srinagar- In a small office at the Rural Development Department in Srinagar, a delegation from the Jammu & Kashmir Climate Action Group and Alamdar Welfare Society Monday made a simple plea: save the waterway that feeds their fields before it's too late.

Led by Dr. Raja Muzaffar Bhat, Abdul Rashid Baba, and Abdul Rashid Wagay, the group met Director Rural Development Department, Shabir Hussain Bhat, to raise concerns about the Kralpur Kul, a 13-kilometer-long irrigation canal that winds through the Chadoora area of central Kashmir.

Once a vital source of water for more than 7,000 kanals of agricultural land, the canal now lies clogged with silt, muck, and solid waste.

“The Kralpur Kul needs urgent desilting from Wathoora Sheikhpora to Mochwa,” Dr. Muzaffar said after the meeting.“Some work has already been done in Kralpora and Dharambugh, but the Sheikhpora, Wathoora, Zolwa, and Gopalpora sections are still blocked. The irrigation department doesn't have enough funds to take it up, so we requested RDD's help. The director agreed and assured us the work would start soon, before winter sets in.”

For the farmers of Chadoora, the canal is the backbone of their livelihoods. Paddy fields, vegetable farms, and orchards in this fertile stretch depend entirely on the steady flow of water from Kralpur Kul. When the canal slows, the land dries, and incomes fall.

The damage, locals say, has deepened over the past few years.

During the September floods, sections of Kralpur Kul and two smaller canals, Masar Kul and Doyan Kul, were severely hit after illegal riverbed mining weakened the embankments of the Doodh Ganga stream.

Without proper regulation, the mining continues to erode the soil base, making restoration harder each season.

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