Wular wetland dying, affects migratory birds

Mir TARiq|02 Jan
Kashmir : Plagued by massive silting and encroachment, the world-famous and largest Wular wetland reserve, situated at the basin of river Jehulm is dying a slow death.
Besides being the Largest Wetland of Asia and an internationally accepted Ramsar site, the area of the wetland has reduced from 157.74SqKm to 58.71SqKm from 1911 to 2008. Unchecked encroachment by the locals and government departments has caused a reduction of 45 percent in the area of the wetland which in turn is badly affecting the habitat of migratory birds visiting this wetland from November to March.
Wular Wetland is located 60Km from summer Capital city of Jammu and Kashmir at the basin of Famous river Jehlum.
Officially Wular wetland is spread on an area of 157.74SqKm but encroachment by the local farmers have reduced this wetland to less than half the size that it used to be a couple of years ago,” said Mushatq Ahmed, senior wildlife guard, posted at wular wetland.
It has been recently estimated that 60,000 Kanals of Wular have been encroached upon in the catchments villages of Sonwari, Bandipora, Watlab, Nigili, Sopore etc though the wetland itself is a state property. Some of the reclaimed marshlands measuring about 25 sq.km have been transformed into willow plantations by the state govt. through social forestry to produce fuel wood and some areas have been transformed into permanent paddy fields.
Environmentalists too warn that wetlands in the state especially Wular Wetland are rapidly shrinking due to official apathy and rampant encroachment, endangering thousand of animals and migratory birds.
An experts and environmentalist Iftikar Rashid Wani predict that Wular Wetland will vanish in around five to seven years if the authorities continue to neglect them.
Wular hosted more than 30,000 migratory birds coming from different countries last year, but wildlife experts warn that the number of winged visitors is slowly declining.
Talking to writer, Wild Life Warden Wetlands (WLWW) Muhammad Maqbool Baba accepted that there has been a widespread encroachment in the Wular wetland reserve and the government is taking steps to retrieve encroached land back from the locals.
“Yes, people of the area have encroached upon a large part of the wetland; we have taken steps to retrieve it also demarcating the encroached land”Baba said.
According to wildlife experts, shrinking wetlands have also affect on the behavior of the water birds, though Wular has still huge area reserve for migratory birds so no such destructive effect is visible,Baba said
“When we go through old records of Wular Wetland obviously there is shrinkage inn its size which may cause decrease in number of migratory birds because of shallow waters but such affect is not visible” said WLWW Mr.Baba.
“Wular is not the permanent habitat for the migratory birds it is a halting reserve where birds remain for few months then go back”Baba added.
However the Guards who are working in Wetland from previous five years told Rising Kashmir that due to encroachment the number of migratory birds is going down day by day.
Mushatq Aged Wildlife Guard says, ““As the wetland space here is shrinking due to encroachment, the birds that come here have to compete with each other for occupying space, so they fight with each other”
Officials say the local resident who mostly depend on farming have turned the wetland into a disposal ground where they dump all their agricultural waste, which in turn is silting the wetland.
The major ailment of the wetland is siltation; large quantities of silt are regularly deposited by the Jhelum, Madhumati, Erin and other streams entering the lake. The rate of siltation has been estimated a 3.33 acre per ft. per year. Siltation has already claimed about 90% of it and the remaining 10% will disappear unless corrective measures are taken. The entry of raw sewage and plant nutrients are continuously adding the nutrient pool resulting in serious weed infestation.