Srinagar: As sun becomes milder with the arrival of autumn, it ushers an army of avians to Kashmir. Flying over continents and seas, nearly one-million birds settle in the Kashmir Valley for winters far away from their original habitats from October to April.
Coming from Siberia, China, Russia and Europe, their traditional journey is stumbling upon the shrinking state of Kashmir’s wetlands - which act as an essential habitat for winged birds.
Over the past two decades, their prime host Hokersar, also called as the ‘queen of wetlands’ in Kashmir has been slowly fading. Huge mounds of soil and silt have taken over the marshy land with extreme pollution making it look like a cesspool.
Almost 10 kilometers away from the Srinagar capital, Hokersar attracts over half a million birds every year due to its distinctive topography and vast expanse that remain immersed in waters. Declared as a Ramsar site, an accreditation for being the wetland of International significance in 2005, it serves as 'the airport of migratory birds' to facilitate their arrival and departures through the year. The key bird species that mark their attendance at the wetland include mallards, common shelduck, ruddy shelduck, koots, bar headed goose, honk and water fowls.
But for all the species, the prospects are fast-shrinking. The government's flood mitigation plan in Kashmir to protect the Valley from the floods like the one in 2014 which left behind a trail of destruction spurring losses over USD 16 billion, filled large swatches of this wetland with earth and slit. This deluge followed encroachments and pollution which had already reduced the size of wetland from 1875.04 hectares in 1969 to 1300 hectares, leaving the wetland gasping for breath.
On November 1, ETV Bharat reporter walked over two kilometers of largely dry and parched stretches in the interiors of the wetland with small batches of winged birds on the fringes of low-lying narrow pathways of muddy water.
Javeed Ganai, living in the vicinity of the wetland in Srinagar’s Zainakote alongside National Highway 44, has grown up for the last 30 years witnessing water levels as high as the newly consolidated dirt track, almost at a height of over 8 feet meant for paving way for machinery for dredging work. For the last six years, he has been working to safeguard the wetland from further deterioration alongside his neighbourhood mates.
Ganai with masters in commerce from Kashmir University is pained to walk over the vast dried-up stretches marked with overgrown vegetation of weeds and occasional dead carcasses of animals swarmed by flies.
“Hokersar was surrounded by paddy fields but now residential colonies have come up there,” he told ETV Bharat. “I see the future of this wetland as a residential colony too if the current condition continues.”
Despite this wanton degradation, the wetland still continues to dish out livelihood to locals. Although sparsely, almost a dozen neighbourhoods living adjacent to Hokersar collect fish, chestnuts and fodder from its wetland.
“This has declined very much now but still God is kind and gives us treasures to find at times,” Ganai added.
For the younger generation, the arrival of winged guests in the wetland has opened up new livelihood opportunities. In the last few years, there is a major activity of birdwatching in Kashmir with youth documenting key species and publishing them in top journals and hence contributing to the citizen-science.
“I can easily tell you the bird species by their sounds,” said Rayan Sofi, a local-birdwatcher who claims to have spotted over 300 species including some rare ones. He has acted as a guide for international and national bird watchers, giving him the opportunity to earn a decent livelihood. In August 2021, he spotted rare bird species sharp-tailed sandpiper in the wetland, which in the past record was spotted and published in 1882 by John Biddulph in Gilgit, now located in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
"But the condition of the wetland is disheartening," Sofi who is armed with a DSLR to spot the birds. "If this prevails, it can threaten the birds and their number will come down and affect us all."
In the face of the growing influence of birdwatching, even women are taking a leap and introducing clubs and groups now. A leading among them is Mehreen Khaleel with PhD in ecological sciences on Himalayan Grey Langur from Indian Institute of sciences, Bangalore.
Helming Kashmir based Wildlife Research and Conservation Foundation, she organises bird-walks and conducts research around their habitat and conservation with her cohort of researchers and bird-enthusiasts.
“There’s a great upturn in birdwatching in Kashmir. We are seeing the trend and accordingly evaluating scientific aspects around birds besides also encouraging locals,’’ said Mehreen.
She, however, remains concerned about the abysmal state of wetlands in Kashmir saying that the necessary interventions need to be made with due scientific advice and sustainability parameters in consideration to help save the tradition of migratory-birds and protect the wetlands from turning into dry and polluted.
In the last four decades, the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) falling under the ministry of home affairs in its report in 2023 noted Hokarsar has experienced fragmentation and changes in land use and land cover due to excessive siltation and biotic interference.
About 44.4 percent of the lakes and wetlands, according to it, have been lost in the suburbs of Srinagar during the turn of the 21st century, affecting the micro climate of the city and exposing them to the incurrent floods. “Hokersar has receded consistently and undergone tremendous land-use change owing to siltation coupled with floods and human interference,” the report added.
In a separate study, Kashmir University’s Department of Earth Sciences, corroborated the decline to “societal greed and government apathy”.
An Environmental Policy Group (EPG), composed of civil society members and experts, are alarmed over the condition of wetlands and accused the J&K Wildlife Department for their failure in their management.
In Hokersar, the NGO claims to have found an earthwork whereby huge quantities of excavated soil was ‘clandestinely trucked away without any accountability’.
“The total apathy by officials has reduced this waterbody into a pasture, parched land , playground and a driving learning facility,” said EPG Convenor Faiz Bakshi, while calling for a high level inquiry into it.
The EPG has filed a Public Interest Litigation in Jammu and Kashmir and the Ladakh High Court seeking conservation, protection and management of the wetlands. “The wildlife department has failed and there is a lack of wetland management. Hokersar is getting fundS from the Government of India and international funds for being a Ramsar site. Even water gates are not being operated and there should have been an optimal level of 3-4 feet waters but the wetland is dry and vegetation has grown here. The habitat has been disturbed and birds won’t come now.”
On the other hand, the J&K Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Warden for Wetlands Altaf Hussain said the wetland will come to life again as the pending intervention works like water management gates will be operational soon.
The two gates with sluices and are part of the comprehensive flood management project are under construction from September 2022 at an estimated cost of over Rs 28 crore within 14 months. But the project has missed multiple deadlines stretching over 25 months.
But, Hussain, cited a recent official correspondence to the irrigation and flood control department, saying the gates will be operational within a week.
He cited several achievements including 95 percent digitisation of Hokersar’s map and said they have proposed plans including digging out of silt from the wetland to increase the water holding capacity. This also includes ecotourism for sustainable livelihood to youth and bird watching activities.
“But the intervention plan is very expensive,” Hussain added. “Now we have formed a 5-year plan and are doing it in a progressive manner. This will comprise dredging, removal of unwanted weeds, navigation channels for patrolling and fencing. Development of land mass for bird resting and pool of water.”
