Kashmir, at one time, happened to be a water body.
So, almost every area, every part of it, was covered by water.
Then later on, because of the drainage,
the gorge was created from the Baramulla side.
The water got drained from that side and many other areas came up.
The Dal Lake is a very important lake for many reasons.
If you ask the tourists who visit Srinagar,
one of the places that is on their itinerary is Dal Lake.
It has a tremendous socio-economic importance,
because the livelihood of the people is dependent on this.
It is a source of recreation, it is a tourist attraction,
it has a tremendous importance for meeting domestic demands of water
for the Srinagar City.
It was during the Dogra period,
and because of the state policies, that outsiders cannot have land,
they cannot construct here.
So, the only choice left to them was to go for these houseboats,
because they were a sort of luxury accommodation that they were getting.
Just before 1950, the Maharaja had permitted smaller houseboats here.
Because prior to 1947,
the British were not permitted by the Maharaja to construct homes,
so they made these houseboats.
Today's houseboats compete with any five-star hotels of Kashmir.
In March and April,
Kashmir is more beautiful than heaven.
April, we say, is the bride of Kashmir.
And then tourists moved into the lake.
People live in those houseboats almost the entire year now.
Similarly, if you look at the people living in the lake,
so it has increased from 10,000 to almost 70,000 now.
So one of the livelihood of these people who live within the lake,
is agriculture.
So, they have expanded, the floating gardens have expanded.
So, right from the Mughal period,
down from the Sultanate till we come to the Dogra period,
there are clear references in the literature which actually talk
about this process of encroachment.
Now, how this encroachment actually took place?
One of the most important factors was the floating gardens.
They were initially only used for vegetables,
because there was huge demand from the city,
because Kashmir had also a long history of famines.
For initial eight years, the floating gardens were not taxed.
So, naturally, such kind of a relaxation by the state
has given more encouragement to the people to go for
further and further encroachments.
This grass gets grown in [the] lake's water,
which we call it as pisk.
On top of that, we put the weed that is taken while cleaning the lake
to make it into a floating garden.
During summers, gourd, okra, cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon,
chilly, bell pepper, etc. are grown.
In winters, we get lotus,
stem,
turnip, radish, cauliflower,
cabbage, onions.
Basically, the people living in the Dal Lake, the 70,000 people,
have to be made part of the solution of the conservation.
That thinking that they are part of the problem and need to be rooted out
from the system has not worked.
So you will have to build their technical capacities,
their educational awareness,
you have to give them sustainable livelihoods, such housing which is
in sync with the environmental conservation and lake conservation.
We are here on the side, on the Foreshore [Road] side.
You can see a much [cleaner lake], at least.
But if you go inside, you see the condition is worse.
In my understanding,
the major gap in all these conservations plans has been
that there is no synergy.
One plan that is under the active consideration of the government,
is to move these houseboats from where they are today to a specific spot,
concentrate them there,
so that some of these problems,
the sewage problem, the waste water problem, the solid waste problem,
could be centralised.
One needs to understand every dimension of the problem of this lake.
Once you understand all the influences,
the influences from the houseboats,
the influences from the people living within the lake,
the influence from agricultural activity
on their use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in the lake,
this untreated sewage from the city that drains into the lake.
Whatever happens in that catchment,
whether it's deforestation,
the agricultural activities, horticultural activities,
or other human activities that happens there, has an impact on the Dal Lake.
So, we may not be able to stop, but minimise, the degradation of this lake.
I think we need to have a very holistic conservation and management plan.