The Lake which I’ve been witnessing every day since my childhood is now infested with weeds, Polythene bags, wrappers and other different effluents which have caused ulceration in Dal Lake. In present times ”The world famous Dal Lake” is stinking due to the sewerage water from hotels, houseboats, business establishments, residential houses and even government offices located all around it has turned the lake water black, poisonous and murky.
The colour of the lake’s water has changed from bluish green to hazel due to higher turbidity. The water is unfit for drinking and aquatic life is also under threat owing to depletion of dissolved oxygen. According to the recent study 15 major drains empty into the lake, bringing along 18.2 tonnes of phosphorus and 25 tonnes of inorganic nitrogen nutrients. Besides nitrates and phosphates, about 80,000 tonnes of silt get deposited in the lake every year.
In coming years If we do not stop the excessive use of polythene bags and other plastic products the people living here will beg for drops given our incurrence and disdain. For decades now, the flora and fauna living in the fragile ecology of famous Dal Lake in Kashmir has been ‘slowly dying an unsung death’.
