KASHMIR NEWS TRUST
While showing grave concern about the deteriorating condition of the famous Wular Lake National Conference leader Irshad Rasool Kar said that non-stop human intervention and callous attitude at the official level have caused much of the degradation with the problems stemming from multiple sources.
Irshad Rasool Kar said that numerous issues stand in the way of Wular Lake’s survival, and thus the survival of the people who fully depend on it is at grave risk.
National Conference leader said that people are losing their livelihoods because the Wular Lake management is not doing enough to conserve the lake, and almost 60 percent fishermen have already lost their traditional livelihood.
Irshad Rasool Kar said that overall, the fish population in Wular has severely declined because of uncontrolled human activity. It should be a self-cleaning system, but the pollution load is too much, which is a cause of great concern for those hundreds of fishermen whose livelihood is only fishing.
He said many fishermen have to search for alternative sources of income through manual labor or selling vegetables in the cities.
“Sixty percent of the fish produced for Jammu and Kashmir come from the lake area, but with fish population declining rapidly and almost declined 40%, the fishermen are quickly losing their source of income. [KNT]
