Anantnag, Sep 9: On a humid September Wednesday afternoon, a group of young men sat along the banks of the Arpaeth nullah behind a playfield in south Kashmir’s Anantnag town, sipping soft drinks and eating chips.
When they finished, they tossed the empty bottles and wrappers onto the riverbank and walked away.
They were hardly alone.
Plastic bags, bottles, food wrappers, and other discarded material lay strewn along both sides of the nullah, turning its banks into a makeshift dumping ground.
For 47-year-old Nazir Ahmad of Anantnag town, the scene is a stark reminder of how much the area has changed.
“Some 30 years ago, our school used to organise picnics near this waterbody. The area now paints a dismal picture. And it is not only about this waterbody. Many streams, springs and rivers have met with the same fate,” Ahmad said.
Tributaries of the gurgling Lidder river are increasingly choked by household waste, while springs in areas such as Kokernag, Achabal and Kaipora have either depleted, disappeared or come under pressure from encroachment.
The larger question, however, is not merely how much water has been lost, but why so little is being done to protect what remains.
Former IAS officer Khurshid Ahmad Ganai said solid waste management does not appear to be on the priority list of the J&K government and despite repeated appeals and memoranda from community and environmental groups, there has been no major initiative in this direction.
“While people elsewhere have moved from the three Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – to the four Rs, including Recover, and are discussing segregation through four bins for food waste, other biodegradable waste, non-biodegradable waste and e-waste, Jammu and Kashmir appears to be lagging behind,” he said.
Ganai said there was little visible action on implementing the ban on single-use plastics, extended producer responsibility and the polluter-pays principle.
“The UT-level Pollution Control Committee is also conspicuous by its absence from any visible action. It appears that the government is following a laissez-faire approach, as though these problems will resolve themselves. They will not,” he said.
“We are damaging our environment, ecology and biodiversity through inaction, and this is not sustainable. If we do not act now, the consequences will soon become much more difficult, if not impossible, to reverse,” Ganai said.
He also linked poor civic infrastructure to the pressure on the environment, particularly in tourist areas.
“International film festivals are welcome, but where are the decent wayside public toilets for tourists? Visitors are often left with no option but to relieve themselves in the open. The UT government could easily have asked hotels and other tourism establishments to help create such facilities, including through corporate social responsibility in appropriate cases,” Ganai said.
He said the problem was not a lack of ideas but a lack of political and administrative will.
“The government is not short of ideas. It knows what needs to be done, but there appears to be a reluctance to act, perhaps because action is considered politically risky or simply because of an attitude that things will somehow continue as they are,” Ganai said.
He warned that neglecting Kashmir’s springs, streams and rivers could have long-term consequences for its water resources and ecology.
“Failure to give adequate attention to springs, lakes and rivers will have serious consequences for Jammu and Kashmir’s water resources, wetlands and ecology. The government should also be encouraging people not to pollute or encroach upon these waterbodies,” Ganai said.
“It is increasingly being left to environmental groups and the media to create awareness among people and warn them about the water crisis that could emerge if corrective measures are not taken now,” he said.
Anantnag, historically known as the “land of countless springs”, is particularly vulnerable to the decline of these water sources. Kokernag, Achabal, and Verinag are among its best-known springs and have been developed as tourist destinations over the years.
But Ganai said even these iconic springs needed greater protection, particularly as climate change adds to existing pressures.
“Hundreds of springs have depleted or disappeared over the past three to four decades across Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian, and Pulwama, which broadly constituted the erstwhile Anantnag district and are now referred to as south Kashmir. Yet there appears to be little concern, including among communities living around these springs,” he said.
“A few decades from now, people could be searching for the springs that are disappearing today. Streams and rivers will also face increasing pressure from climate change, compounded by waste pollution, encroachments, illegal mining and siltation. We need to act before the damage becomes irreversible,” Ganai said.
He suggested that the responsibility for protecting and reviving springs should be decentralised and placed with local institutions.
“The most effective way to revive and restore springs in both rural and urban areas would be to assign responsibility to local institutions – panchayats in rural areas and municipal authorities in urban areas – backed by dedicated funding from the government,” he said.
