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Name
Of The Lake: Wular Lake
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Coordinates: 34°16'N
074°33'E
Altitude: 1580 mt
Area:
189 km2
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Location:
In the Valley of Kashmir, 40 km
northwest of the city of Srinagar, district of Bandipur, state Jammu and Kashmir, northwest India.
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Significance:
The lake acts as a huge
reservoir and absorbs high floodwater of the river Jhelum. The site supports an
important fishing industry and is a valuable source of water for irrigation
and domestic use. The marshes provide a source of fodder for domestic
livestock and harvesting of the water plant Trapa natans provides an
important source of revenue for the State Government. The area is important
for wintering, staging and breeding birds.
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Wetland
:
The site encompasses the
largest freshwater lake in India (maximum depth 40 m) and associated marshes,
in the floodplain of the Jhelum River. It is of Fluviative type in origin.
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Ecology:
There are extensive areas of emergent and floating vegetation,
particularly Trapa natans, in the southeast part of the lake.
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Uses:
Large areas of the lake have
been converted for rice cultivation and tree plantations.
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Conservation:
The site is partly state-owned
and partly in private ownership. The State Government has developed an action
plan for the catchment area (involving control of soil erosion). A comprehensive
scheme is also being developed for management of the lake on sound ecological
basis.
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Adverse
Factors:
Large proportions of the lake
area have been converted for different land use purposes like plantations and
paddy cultivation. The wetland is undergoing rapid siltation, particularly at
the inflow of the Jhelum River in the southeast part of the lake. Its waters
are contaminated with domestic and industrial waste, originating mainly from
the city of Srinagar and entering the lake via the Jhelum River. There is a
serious risk of loosing the biological diversity including loss of some
important endemic and endangered species due to human pressures on the
wetland.
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Origin:
Fluviatile ( Fluvial origin having been formed from ox-bows of rivers
which flow across the valley, meandering the alluvial deposits).
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