Sopore’s Hygam wetland is dying

Waris Fayaz, Sopore | Once known as Maharaja Protected Wetland is losing its sheen as illegal encroachment, unabated pollution, and lack of conservation measures have affected the ecosystem of the wetland at Haritar Hygam in Sopore.

The Hygam-Wetland, a natural aquifer, spread over 7.25 kilometers is one of the known wetlands of Kashmir. The wetland is embedded with springs. It has 1400 hectares of land with the area dominated by extensive reed beds and home to many migratory birds including White Heeled Duck, Shoveller, Red-Crested Pochard, White-Eyed Pochard, Pintail, Mallard, Gadwall, Coot, and Graylag.

Also Read: Wetlands of Jammu and Kashmir

Aijaz Rasool, wetland technical expert and a senior executive member of Environmental Policy Group (EPG) told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO),  that due to largescale illegal encroachments, unabated pollution, and insensitivity of authorities to keep a check on human interference in the wetland, it has reduced to a big pond, forcing migratory birds to find an alternative habitat as their winter home.

"The wetland is ill-maintained. Authorities must restore and conserve the wetland for future generations as there is a water siltation of 10 ft which deteriorates its condition," he said.

Similarly, Patron central Auqaf committee Tarzoo in Sopore Aijaz Ahmed Dar said that the wetland has encroached at many places including Haritar, Hygam, Lolpora, Gohul, Goshbug, etc.

“Scores of structures have come up over the past several years while hundreds of kanals of land were being used by encroachers illegally for cultivating paddy,” he said.

Dar, who is also a member of EPG said that the authorities earlier had identified the encroached land of at least 2300 Kanals and have not been retrieved yet. In addition to this, approximately 1200 kanals of land have been converted for crop cultivation.

"The official inability to act in time has encouraged more and more people to grab the land. Hundreds of trees were uprooted during the snow but they were not removed. An auction may have fetched money to conserve the wetland but nothing was done,” he added.

Mohammad Shafi Bacha, a retired senior official of the Wildlife Department who was at Hygam wetland said that he used to count the migratory birds in lakhs. “But we hardly witness any now because the water level capacity of this wetland has been minimized to 1 sq km from 7.2 sq km due to siltation,” he said.

"In the year 2000, we had marked the wetland and decided to remove the trees which were planted by the various agencies including social forestry, panchayats, and even the wildlife department as well. It has been 20 years since then and nothing has been done till now,” Bacha added.

Similarly, locals too demanded the attention of the authorities to save the wetland from further deterioration.

The wildlife warden, North Kashmir could not be contacted despite repeated phone calls—(KNO)

Also, Read

• Sarbal Village: A hamlet in Kashmir waiting for development
• How are ‘Ramsar sites’ important to conserving wetlands?
• Explained: What are Wetlands and Why are they important?
• Delhi to notify 10 Water Bodies as wetlands, How this helps?

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