RECLAIMING KHUSHAL SAR

The government avoided any commitment that it will restore the freshwater lake. Eventually, a social activist threw his hat in the ring, handheld the residents, living on its banks, and initiated the first civilian effort to retrieve the water body. Two months in the muck and the lake is visibly clear but authorities require chipping in to help move the mode, reports Yawar Hussain

- Yawar Hussain

For years, the residents of a vast old city belt would chase politicians and officers for the restoration of the fresh waters of Khushal Sar if not the recovery of the encroached patches of its land. It was a perpetual stink that was part of the environs they lived in. Already struggling to manage the Dal lake and Brari Nambal lagoon in Srinagar and Wullar lake in north Kashmir, nobody was in a position to address their concern.

Finally, they discovered their own strength when a civil society initiative, Nigeen Lake Conservation Organization (NLCO), decided to take up the water body for the basic cleansing of its waters. Initially seen as impossible when the locals finally joined the initiative, the water body seems clearer and cleaner. The stink is around but it is less pungent now.

“Had the residents not joined the initiative, it would have taken us a long time to manage all this,” Manzoor Ahmad Wagnoo, businessman and NLCO president, said. “This all was aimed at rekindling the Ehsaas (Realisation) and it clicked.” NLCO has named the Khushal Sar reclamation, Ehsaas.

KEY NAVIGATION ROUTE

Khushal Sar, the tiny water body is crucially located in the navigation map of Srinagar city. Its clogging means blockage of major navigation set up. Khushal Sar extended between Zoonimar and Aali Masjid areas. It is connected to Gil Sar, another small spring-fed lake, by a narrow strait and to Anchar Lake via a channel. Gil Sar is connected to Nigeen Lake through Nallah Amir Khan.