Conservation and Management Plan for Dal- Nagin Lake

1 PREAMBLE
Lakes are impotant natural resources, Serving many purposes for the population around them as sources of natural beauty, recreation and economic return in a mutually reinforcing and sustainable manner. Yet ,they are amoungst our most vulnerable habitates and many of them have undergone considerable degradation because of human activity untempered with consideration for their environmental health Dal- Nagin lake at srinagar is no exception . This has been realised by the State and the Central Governments. The Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India has assigned to the Alternate Hydro Energy centre of the University of Rookee, the works of preparing a Detalied project (DPR) for the Conservation and Management of Dal lake.
The Dal lake is located at an altitude of 1583 m above mean sea level , at srinagar at 34ο 5’ N and 74ο 50’ E. It is unique in the series that this is probably the only lake in which people live onside that lake in hamlets and houseboats and cultivation is carried out in floating gardens within the lake . The lake is regarded to have originated as a post glacial lake which has been preserved in the recent geological times and undergo changes due to progressive shrinkage. Another view is that it is a result of river meandering in the flood plain of river Jhelum. Top
The problems facing the lake can be summarised below.

Shrinkage in area because of encroachments by hamlets and floating gardens.
Reduction in volume by silting caused mainly due to catchment area degardation.
Increased pollution because of the increasing number of lake dwellers and floating gardens, entry of untreated sewage and solid waste from the peripheral areas and from the hamlet and house boats and agriculture return flow from catchment into the lake.
Reduction and clogging of water channels within the lake because of encroachments leading to reduce circulation.
Reduction of fresh water inflow into the lake.
Nutrient enrichment of the lake water and sediment resulting in excessive weed growth and change in the bio-diversity in the lake
Data deficiency
Insitutional deficiency Top

The conservation and Management plan has, therefore, to address all the above Issues . further needs to be emphasised that the lake being a dynamic ecosystem, where differernt subsysytems have a strong mutual interaction , any interventions must be thoroughly examined fore their likely impact before implementation . It wa, therefore necessary to form a multidisciplinary group to prepare the DPR . This group comprised organisation and individuals covering diverse fields like engineering, limnology and hydrobiology, economic , sociology and many more. Top
The objective adopted by us is to prepare a paln which is sustainable, Environment Friendly , cost Effective and improves Ecology with minimum interventions and displacement , which serves the diverse interests. Of varous stakeholders. In an optimal manner Top