 Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 2: For the last one week, the cash-starved Union Territory of the Jammu and Kashmir government has spent huge on advertisements to celebrate World Wetland Day on February 2 but on the ground, nothing has been done to save water bodies.
Like other schemes of this regime which are working only on papers and advertisements, the save water bodies campaign is also confined to the paid advertisement from the coffer of J&K.
Except pumping huge funds to public pictures and highlighting achievements of the government, this regime has failed to rejuvenate vanished water bodies in the Jammu region. As per record, five wetlands have vanished in Jammu region due to the casual approach of the Revenue Department and the wildlife authorities to demarcate wetlands of the region.
Except for a small patch at Gharana, wetland at Pargwal (Akhnoor), once spread over 49.27 square kilometers, Kokerian (Gho-Manhasa), 27 square kilometers Sangra, l0.68 square kilometers in RS Pura, and Nanga, 1.28 square kilometers in Ramgarh have vanished but no step has been taken to retrieve these wetlands. Reports said that most of them were handed over to the Wildlife Department in 1981 for conservation. It is all due to nexus between different departments and the mafia, these wetlands have encroached and no action has been taken by the authorities at the helm of the affairs.
Records say that there are 29 wetlands in the erstwhile state of J&K. 16 wetlands are in the Kashmir Valley, eight in Jammu province, and five in Ladakh. All of these have been brought under conservation plans. |
