Waterfowl censuses conducted in recent years, he said, have yielded counts of around half a million wintering birds in Hokersar. But this year, there has been a massive decline. \u201cMy local sources told me that there is a tremendous decrease in the number of birds,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div>The wetland, located 10 kilometres west of Srinagar\u2019s city centre and fed by the perennial Doodhganga river, supports populations of waterbirds that migrate from breeding grounds across Siberia, Central Asia and China to spend the winter. Key species include the ferruginous duck (Aythya nyroca<\/em>), assessed as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two years after the devastating floods<\/a> which struck Kashmir in September 2014, the Jammu and Kashmir government approved a flood management programme to protect Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Phase one of the two-stage plan included, among other flood management measures, the dredging of a flood spill channel through Hokersar wetland to enable excess rainwater to drain away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Citing recommendations from India\u2019s National Wildlife Board, a number of conditions were set in the 2016 government order (seen by The Third Pole<\/a>) for the execution of the work, including requirements to maintain water quality in the wetland by setting up an effluent treatment plant, disposing of excavated material outside the wetland \u201cby mechanical means or otherwise to the extent of full quantity\u201d, and setting up a \u201csufficient number of sluice gates\u201d to ensure \u201c3-4 feet of water level in the wetland throughout the year\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These conditions have not been fulfilled by the executing agency, Reach Dredging Ltd, which was awarded the contract by Kashmir\u2019s Irrigation and Flood Control (IFC) department. Between July 7, 2019 and December 14, 2020, 13 letters were sent to the IFC department from the office of the Wildlife Warden of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Department of Wildlife Protection, with requests that these conditions be met. No response was received. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A letter from September 2020 notes that failure to abide by these conditions has \u201cbifurcated the wetland into two parts resulting in \u2026 drying up of the area which poses a great threat to the flora and fauna of the habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A subsequent letter from December 14 states that deepening of the flood spill channel and ancillary feeding streams \u201chas increased the velocity of water in these channels thereby abstracting more waters from and within the Hokersar Wetland Reserve. This has \u2026 converted [a] major portion of the wetland into a land mass.\u201d The letter urges the IFC department to \u201cresolve this long pending issue at an earliest [date] so that this wetland of international importance is saved for long.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n A wildlife official told The Third Pole<\/a> that around 80% of the earth excavated during the channel dredging is still lying in the wetland. Visiting the wetland in early March 2021, this reporter saw that mounds of excavated material were being spread around by bulldozers in the wetland itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\nPreconditions for excavation work ignored<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/A_channel_passing_through_Hokersar_wetland_which_has_been_dredged._But_the_excavated_material_is_still_lying_in_the_wetland_Photo_credit__Athar_Parvaiz-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/div>![\"Hokersar](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Over_600000_Million_Cubic_Meters_MCMs_of_earth_material_has_been_excavated_from_Hokersar_but_most_of_that_material_is_still_lying_in_the_wetland_Photo_Credit__Athar_Parvaiz-scaled.jpeg\")
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![\"Hokersar](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/These_women_near_Lawaypora_said_that_they_used_to_navigate_inside_the_Hokersar_to_get_fodder_for_their_cattle._Not_any_more._Photo_credit__Athar_Parvaiz-scaled.jpeg\")
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