A Lake in distress

 

 

Shocked by the floating litter and polythene in the enchanting Dal Lake – the lake adds grace to the beauty of Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital – two European tourists decided to abandon their sightseeing for a day and instead devote it for helping save the lake. A joyride in the Shikara on day one thus turned into a cleaning drive as Marc Stolltreiter of Germany and his Austrian friend Birgit Lenger joined the initiative by Valley Citizens’ Council by collecting polythene bags, trash cans and whatever unwanted items they could find.



FACTFILE

Foreigners take the lead in cleaning Dal lake

50,000 people live on the Dal

NGOs, voluntary groups, other activists join in to undertake cleansing of the Dal.



“I was shocked to see the litter,” Marc Stolltreiter told reporters while he began his day’s toil through different stretches of Dal. “My conscience forced me to sponsor and participate in the cleaning drive,” the psychologist from Germany said.

The earnest initiative was well received when the houseboat owners of Dal joined him, realising that a foreigner had shown higher levels of consciousness than the locals whose bread and butter depends on the waters of the lake. Soon environmentalists, voluntary groups and even students had joined in to contribute their bit.

Can the effort prove to be an eye opener for the government or will it go down the drain as too little too late remains to be seen. For the time being, Marc Stolltreiter massage that “everything should not be left for the government to do”, is being very well received and efforts are on to do the maximum in order help slow down the pace of the lake’s death. “Only people’s involvement and their quest for preserving Kashmir’s heritage will help in restoring its pristine glory,” says Zareef Ahmad Zareef, chairman Valley Citizens’ Council.

However, with 50,000 people inhabiting the Dal Lake, there are plans to move the population out of the lake and inhabit them at some other place. At the moment though, they remain just plans in need of implementation.