Srinagar, Feb 8: There was a time when people, especially children, used to bath in the crystal clean streams (kols) of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, but now the situation has changed.
The important streams and Jhelum tributaries here are almost on the verge of extinction with garbage, mostly polythene, having choked their natural habitat.
Locals living around some of these streams while talking to Kashmir News Observer (KNO) news agency regret that the once-gushing streams Chount Koul, Sonar Koul and Gagribal have lost their glory, as both local communities and the successive governments were unable to protect and conserve their pristine glory.
Environmental expert MRD Kundangar told KNO that it was unfortunate that the major departments including Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) and Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) don’t own the tributaries.
“The government at the topmost priority must fix responsibility in this regard,” he said. “Once the responsibility is fixed, the department concerned would take apt steps accordingly to keep the tributaries alive.”
Kundangar said that the Chount Kol, which is basically the exit channel of Dal Lake and river Jhelum, was also being used for water transportation while Sonar Kol was a tributary of river Jhelum.
He said that both the government apathy, as well as the negligence of people, were responsible for the current mess of these tributaries, adding that the government must speed up the rehabilitation process.
“In Gagribal, there used to be a residential area in the ancient time as well. But the rehabilitation process is a must also to preserve the tributaries,” he said.
Abdul Majeed, a local resident at Aabi Karpora area near Gagribal tributary said that although government agencies were taking steps to clean the stream, it was only on the front side.
“The backside of the tributary where we live has not been cleaned from the past several decades. It is we (locals) who clean it almost every week,” he said.
He added that during the tenure of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, it was told that the people living in this particular area will be shifted to other places so as to facilitate measures to preserve the tributary.
“The poles regarding the measure were erected in the locality during that period. However, since then no step has been taken,” Majeed told KNO.
Majeed also said that such is the height that the locality has no drainage, thus resulting in further deterioration of Gagribal tributary.
At Sonar Kol locals said that after the floods hit Kashmir in 2014, the government started dredging process in this tributary, but it has not been cleaned for a long now.
“There was a time when people especially children used to bath and women folk used to wash clothes or utensils at the ghats of the tributary. However, the charm and glory are no longer visible. It won’t be an exaggeration to say than the tributary is dead. It has reduced to a useless place, which is being used for throwing garbage,” Manzoor Ahmad, a local resident said.
At Chount Kol, one can imagine situation like that of Achan, a garbage dumping site in Srinagar outskirts.
“It is a well-known fact that the government agencies responsible for conservation barely paid heed to preserve these tributaries. But, at the same time, the local populace is also responsible for the current mess as we as locals should have been more responsible and not dump garbage in these places,” Ghulam Muhammad, an elderly man laments.
He said, in his childhood, people used to drink the water of the tributary but now it is not only filthy but poisonous too. He added that the concerned government agencies need to take special care of these tributaries to preserve them for the generations to come.
—(KNO)