Wular Lake needs attention

09/07/2020

Wular Lake is one of the largest fresh-water lakes in Asia, has already shrunk alarmingly mainly due to the negligence of the authorities concerned. But still continuous attempts are being made to pollute it further mainly by the municipal Bodies, which come under the administrative control of the Housing and Urban Development Department. As there is no let-up in dumping of municipal solid waste in the Wular lake in the Kashmir valley, the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Board has issued show-cause notices to the concerned Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) with the warning of imposing hefty penalty and initiating prosecution proceedings if they fail to file tenable response within the prescribed time-frame. Municipal Council Sopore in Baramulla district and Municipal Committee Bandipora are two major Urban Local Bodies which are fearlessly dumping municipal solid waste in the immediate vicinity of Wular in most unscientific manner. In the month of March this year Wular Conservation and Management Authority received reports from its team and District Officer of Soil and Water Conservation Department mentioning that Municipal Council Sopore has started encroaching Wular demarcated land at Ningli and resorting to dumping of solid waste.
This act of the Municipal Council was in violation of Environment Protection Act and Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules besides against the directives of the National Green Tribunal. Though Wular Conservation & Manage-ment Authority (WCMA) decided to lodge formal complaint before the court against the violation/contravention of provisions by the Municipal Council Sopore yet what happened thereafter was never revealed by the Conservation Authority and the violation of Environment Act and Wetland Conservation Rules continued unabated by this municipal body as well as Municipal Committee Bandipora. Keeping in view the non-cooperative attitude of the Urban Local Bodies especially on the environment protection front, the Housing & Urban Development Depart-ment is required to issue clear cut instructions in this regard to the heads of the ULBs without wasting any time so that nobody dares to cause damage to the environment and whosoever indulges in the same gets exemplary punishment.

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