HC bans houseboats in Dal lake

The typical Kashmir vacation invariably included a few nights on a houseboat on the Dal, sipping kahwa on the deck and slurping sumptuous wazwan in a cabin packed with walnut-wood furniture. Not anymore, the J&K high court has ruled. The court directed the state government to shut down 1,200 houseboats moored along the shores of the Dal starting Friday and until the owners ensure the historic Srinagar lake isn’t being poisoned by houseboat waste. Sewage from houseboats and waste from hotels and homes along the Dal empty into the lake. For years, conservationists have cried hoarse that the pollution is killing the Dal and the ornately-carved cedar houseboats are turning it into a weedclogged swamp. The centrepiece of Srinagar’s tourist trade has shrunk by more than half to 11 sq km and lost 12 m in depth in the last two decades. The high court issued the directive on Friday after taking cognizance of a recent pollution control board report, which said open houseboat lavatories are a major source of pollution. A bench of Justice Nisar Ahmad Kakru and Justice Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussian asked the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) and Srinagar municipal corporation to implement the court’s directions and apprise it daily on the progress made. The HC also directed the administration to inquire into the lapses of the officers in permitting constructions by violating its orders. Acting on the court’s directive, LAWDA, the nodal agency responsible for controlling pollution in the lake, immediately ordered all houseboat owners to stop operations on Friday. “All houseboats and hotels draining their waste into the lake have stopped functioning,’’ LAWDA vicechairman Irfan Yaeen said. “Houseboats would be allowed to function again as soon as they construct a wastebin to divert the sewage into LAWDA’s sewerage treatment plants.’’ In addition to the 7,500 people living on houseboats, another 50,000 people inhabit small islands in the area. Tests show high levels of lead, arsenic, iron, manganese, copper and cadmium that accumulate in fish which are then consumed by humans. The order has come as a severe jolt for the tourism industry trying to recover from the losses it suffered after last year’s Amarnath agitation.