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Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/indias-lake-district-fast-drying-up-atul-sethi-16565.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India’s lake district fast drying up-Atul Sethi | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

India’s lake district fast drying up-Atul Sethi
-The Times of India

Neeraj Banerjee and his family are regular visitors to Nainital. This June, too, the Delhi-based computer engineer made a trip to what he calls his family's favourite tourist spot, nestling in the Kumaon hills at almost 2,000m above sea level. However, Banerjee says all they talked about this time was water — the paucity of it. "With summers being particularly harsh this year, things looked like they had almost reached crisis point. Most people we met were concerned about future availability. This is ironical, considering the area is known as the lake district of India," he says. 

Naini lake, which caters to the town's residents as well as its burgeoning tourist population, has seen water levels depleting to unprecedented levels this year. And it's not just Nainital. Worried local residents and environmentalists are warning about the increasing impact of urbanization on all the lakes of the region, including Bhimtal, Naukuchiatal, Sattal and Khurpatal. 

Prakash Tiwari, professor of environment in Kumaon University, says the fragile lakes are depleting fast because of increased pollution and siltation of lake beds. "This year, for instance, the water level of Naini lake reduced by upto 16ft. This has never happened in the last 150 years," he says. Over-extraction of water from the lake to cater to the tourist inflow — which increased the town's population by over 70% this year — is an obvious reason. But the other, more dangerous cause, is the rapid siltation of the lake bed due to indiscriminate construction, posing the most serious threat to the lakes' ecosystem. It may, some say, even cause them to permanently dry up. "Unabated construction activity near the lakes has accelerated their natural rate of erosion alarmingly and affected their depth. The current average rate of sedimentation of Naini lake is estimated to be more than 56 cubic meter per year, which is frightening," says Tiwari. 

Many put the onus for this on the district administration and the Lake Development Authority, the nodal agency responsible for the well-being of lakes in the region. Ajay Singh Rawat, former head of the department of history at Kumaun University and a prominent crusader for this cause for more than two decades, says rampant commercial construction near all the lakes often has the tacit support of the authorities. "According to the rules of the Lake Development Authority, no construction can be done upto 30m of the lake. But this is being blatantly flouted," he says. 

The response of officials is along predictable lines. "Whenever instances of inappropriate construction have come to light, we have taken suitable action," says Hemlata Dhaundiyal, development commissioner of Kumaon. "Cases have also been filed against such people. Whenever fresh instances will come to our notice, we will act." 

But such action, if any, don't seem to have been much of a deterrent. In 1993, Rawat had filed a PIL on the basis of which the Supreme Court passed a judgment banning the construction of multi-storied group housing societies in Nainital. Builders have, however, found new ways to circumvent laws, he says. "Instead of housing complexes, they now present their projects differently by constructing several flats in different names. Commercial construction is going on indiscriminately in the catchment areas of Bhimtal, Naukuchiatal and Sattal — even in thick forests and on top of natural springs. Destruction of the forests means water retention goes down, negatively impacting the lakes." 

Local residents say that the scramble for premium land near the lakes has also led to the land mafia asserting itself and even encroaching on properties. Pulak Shukla, who runs a wellness retreat in Bhimtal, alleges that local toughs in collusion with government officials manipulated documents in a bid to seize his land, which is at a premium location. "I refused to pay a bribe, so they have been trying all means to evict me." 

However, all is not bleak. Environmentalists and pressure groups have forced certain measures to be implemented for safeguarding the lakes. Rawat says that after the Supreme Court PIL in 1993, followed by an interim application that he filed in 2005, the Lake Development Authority launched different schemes that have also had a positive impact. 

"In order to treat pollutants in the Naini lake, scientific techniques like aeration and bio-manipulation were done for the first time in India. The oxygen level of the lake has increased and fish like mahaseer, congenial for ecology, introduced," he says. "Also, a biodiversity park has been established in Sariya tal, which had dried up. A restaurant on an island in the middle of Bhimtal lake, which was causing a lot of pollution, has been replaced by a state-of-the-art aquarium. But a lot more needs to be done on a war footing, especially against unauthorized and rampant construction, if India's only region to have the maximum number of natural lakes is to be saved for future generations."