Srinagar, Apr 28:? Kashmir Centre for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS) has conveyed its concern for the sharply deteriorating conditions of environment and ecology in Jammu and Kashmir and has decided to file Public Interest Litigation on the issue, a spokesman of the? KCSDS said in a statement.?
?He said in a daylong Round Table Conference organized by KCSDS here on the subject Environment and sustainable Tourism, it was observed by the participants that there is free human trafficking in the name of Tourism and Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir which is unregulated and leads to environmental disaster in eco-fragile areas of the state particularly in Pahalgam and Sonmarg Valleys. The members observed that the Yatra entry is magnified and beyond the carrying capacity of lakhs of people in the name of Yatra are pushed in the area which has serious implications on ecology and results in condemnation of water.
?The members, according to the spokesman, observed that on one hand, the glaciers in the area are shrinking? due to increase in temperature by huge human rush which also effects the early melting of the Holy Lingum.
?Keeping in view the environmental hazards and challenge to the biodiversity in this eco-fragile area, it was unanimously resolved that we must ask the government to regulate the yatra and limit its time to 21 days as per the practice in vogue for past 150 years in accordance to Hindu faith for the holy month of Shrawan which concludes with the festival of Raksha Bandhan. Besides the number of yatris per day needs to be restricted to the carrying capacity which according to Nitish Sen Gupta recommendation is 2000 per day, the spokesman said.
?He said noted environmentalist Dr. Shakeel Romshu presented very disturbing figures of environmental degradation in the state. While throwing light on depletion of glaciers he said that in 1992 the total area of glaciers was 42.33 sq.kms which has shrunk to 37.56 Square KMs by the 2011.
?In his presentation Dr Javed Iqbal quoted a study conducted by Vijay Kumar Raina formerly Geological Survey of India who related that from 1934 to 2003 there was an average shrinkage of 70 feet (20 meters) on an average annually.
?In 2004-05 the retrace slode to 12 meters a year and since 2007 it is practically at standstill. It could be concluded that it is due to regulated religious tourism to Gangotri, the origion of sacred Ganga. The civil society has a highly pertinent question that why similar regulations can not be adopted for Shri Amarnathji yatra,
?Noted legal luminary Zaffar Shah asked the civil society to take up the issue of environment comprehensively in its entirety and come up with the solutions based suggestions. He floated the idea of filing Public Interest Litigation before the High Court of J&K for regulating the human influx in the name of tourism including yatra.
?While endorsing the viewpoint of Z A Shah, Advocate G N Shaheen stressed the need for mass awareness about the environmental degradation caused by unplanned development in the sensitive eco-fragile areas. He said south Kashmir faces serious health hazards due to contaminated drinking water of lidder nallah as the main water source.
?Chairperson KCSDS Prof Hameedah Nayeen, in her presidential address appreciated the views and data based information provided by the experts in RTC and emphasized the need to check environmental degradation and ecological vandalism by the government. She appreciated the resolve to explore all the possible enforceability measures to check environmental and ecological vandalism.
?Columnists Abdul Majid Zargar, Z. G Mohammad, Shiekh Showkat Hussain, Faiz Bakshi, M. Azim Tuman, Rouf Tramboo, Dr. Rouf Mohiudin, M.A Kirmani, Anwar Ashai, Fazal Illahi, Shakeel Qalander and others also made their presentation in the session.
Lastupdate on : Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 IST
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