Though water bodies are one of biggest sources of tourist attraction in Jammu & Kashmir and more so in Kashmir Valley but they have become vulnerable to increasing pollution threats due to persistent failures in preserving Valley’s top water bodies over the period of years. While lack of proper waste disposal system is cited a big reason for increasing pollution threats to the survival of top water bodies in Kashmir Valley, responsibility for the failures in preserving prime water bodies like World famous Dal Lake in Srinagar are not fixed on the civic bodies and Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA) obliged to preserve such water bodies. Though National Green Tribunal (NGT) has several times in last few years sought explanations from several civic bodies of Kashmir Valley over the increasing pollution threats to several top water bodies of Kashmir Valley but barring hearing after hearing no actions have been taken so for against such civic bodies for their failures in preserving Dal Lake in Srinagar and other such top water bodies in different parts of Kashmir Valley. Beautifying the roads around the lake and allowing the pollution threats to rise around water bodies shows that lapses are in urban plans designed for execution by the civic bodies year after year. This in fact is by all standards of understandabilities the main cause for rising pollution in and around the famed water bodies in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir Valley. Government alone is not to be blamed for the mess but the people including tourists are to be equally blamed for the rising pollution in and around lakes, rivers and spring in Kashmir Valley as they blindly throw poythenes used for packing junk foods and plastic bottles used for soft drinks into water bodies in and around lakes and springs at tourist places across Kashmir.
“As the rising pollutants fast reduce the areas of famed water bodies of Kashmir particularly Dal Lake, Wular Lake and river Jehlum neither the top civic bodies like Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) nor the Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA) previously called Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWWD) wake up from deep slumber and come out with an action plan for preserving Dal, Lake, Wular Lake , river Jehlum and other famed Springs and Lakes of Kashmir Valley”.
Decades ago people would find water of Jehlum safe to use for both drinking and cooking purposes but finding it highly polluted people now hardly use water for external use like ablution .While the human excreta is drained from house boats into the Jehlum, the recycled polythenes and recycled plastic bottles are also thrown into it from dawn to dusk from both the residential and commercial places from upstream in South up to down in the North Kashmir. As the rising pollutants fast reduce the areas of famed water bodies of Kashmir particularly Dal Lake, Wular Lake and river Jehlum neither the top civic bodies like Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) nor the Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA) previously called Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWWD) wake up from deep slumber and come out with an action plan for preserving Dal, Lake, Wular Lake, river Jehlum and other famed Springs and Lakes of Kashmir Valley.