After a long interlude of twenty-three years, I visited today the enchanting Hokersar Wetland Conservation Reserve, a cradle of life where the skies themselves seem to pour forth wings. Here, tens of thousands of migratory birds descend each winter, their journeys traced from the frozen steppes of Siberia, the vast landscapes of China and Central Asia, the distant horizons of Northern Europe, and the neighbouring realms of the SAARC nations.
This sanctuary, a wintering resort, offers a safe haven to migratory waterfowl—its placid waters and reed-fringed banks becoming both roost and banquet. Ornithologists have recorded nearly sixty-four species weaving their songs and silences into Hokersar’s tapestry. With the turning of the seasons, the wetland transforms into a summer nursery, where migratory and resident birds alike nestle, breed, and raise their young amid the whispering reeds.
Just ten kilometres west of Srinagar, along the Srinagar–Baramulla Road, Hokersar stands as a Ramsar Site since 2005, a jewel of ecological heritage. Roughly oval in form, it stretches across 13.54 square kilometres, a living amphitheatre where nature stages its most delicate dramas.
Hokersar is under increasing pressure from multiple environmental and human-induced factors. Deforestation in the catchment area has reduced natural buffers, while streams feeding into the wetland carry significant amounts of silt that gradually diminish its water-holding capacity. Rapid urbanisation in the surrounding region has further intensified stress on the ecosystem, with nearly thirty villages located within a five-kilometre radius, some less than a kilometre from its boundary. The massive flood of 2014 compounded these challenges, depositing an extraordinary volume of silt into the wetland and altering its ecological balance. This accumulation has narrowed open-water spaces, disrupted feeding grounds, and accelerated habitat degradation, posing serious risks to the diverse migratory and resident bird populations that depend on Hokersar for survival.
Khalid Bashir Ahmed is an author and former Director of Information, Jammu & Kashmir, known for his writing on culture, environment and public life.
