Calls for increased public awareness & engagement with issues of ecology & environment
Srinagar: The Group of Concerned Citizens (GCC) J&K has raised alarm at the impending threat to the Brein-Nishat Conservation Reserve and Dachigam Wildlife National Park with the proposed acquisition of 1324 kanals of land in Brein-Nishat (Tehsil Khanyar, District Srinagar) to set up a camping site for four CRPF battalions.
In a statement released today, the GCC observed that the area earmarked comes within the Conservation Reserve “Protected Area Network” (PAN) notified under the Wildlife Act, 1972, as amended in 2022, and that any such move could have the potential of disturbing the fragile ecosystem of the Zabarwan Hills, posing an existential threat to rare wildlife including the Hangul (Kashmiri stag), snow leopard, and other unique mammals which have already reached the “red alert list.” Any further squeezing of their habitat will have an irreversible impact on the entire biodiversity of this sensitive, high-density tourist location.
The specified area also falls within the approved Green Belt Zone of the Srinagar Master Plan 2035. As such, any infrastructure development within the area is not permissible and hence prohibited. Any land-use change would be highly perilous given the sensitivity and fragility of the ecosystem, including the well-preserved biodiversity of the Conservation Reserve, which also forms a part of the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) of the famous Dachigam Wildlife National Park and is an important micro-watershed of Dal Lake.
Appreciating some local citizens for having moved the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which has issued a notice to the government of JK, besides other departments/agencies concerned, the Group has brought up the need for increased public awareness and engagement with issues of protecting natural resources, ecology, and the environment.
Dachigam Wildlife Sanctuary, it recalled, was first established by Maharaja Pratap Singh in 1910 and came to be notified as a “Wildlife Conservation Reserve” vide Cabinet Order No. 710 of 1945 dated 11-07-1945.
The GCC has expressed deep anguish at the reported removal of vegetative growth, including land clearance and cutting down of trees, being initiated without mandatory pre-project clearances and proper acquisition/transfer of land in due process of law, and appealed to the Hon’ble LG and Hon’ble CM that the proposal be shelved and an appropriate alternative found for the CRPF battalions to raise the camping site.
Further, the GCC has urged the government to take all necessary steps to prevent unwarranted and unlawful interference with eco-fragile areas and tourist destinations throughout JK.
