Although Asia’s largest freshwater Wular Lake and Dal Lake in central Kashmir’s Srinagar are witnessing a festive looks these days with a large number of boatmen extracting chestnuts from the lakes amid chilling cold, however they are also complaining that it’s extraction is witnessing a huge decline for the past few years.
Nadur, or lotus stem, is used in many Kashmiri dishes. In many Asian countries, almost every part of this plant Nadur is being consumed but in Valley only the stem and its seed are in demand. The distinctive dried seed heads resemble the spouts of watering cans.
Lotus stems have been found to be rich in dietary fiber, vitamin C, potassium, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, phosphorus, copper, and manganese, while very low in saturated fat.
“As compared to the past, Nadru turnout in Dal Lake has gone down considerably. A few years ago, I used to take out about 100 kg of Nadru from the lake every day but nothing like that is happening now,” Abdul Ahad, who has been involved in the Nadru extraction for the past 50 years said, and added, “that 20 kg is the maximum a person can get now”.
Similarly, Mohammad Ayoub, an elderly man said that earlier a person could collect a boatful of Nadru, about 50-60 kg’s in a half-day, but now, one can only dream of such a good harvest.
Similarly in north Kashmir’s Wular lake the reasons for the lake’s decline in Nadru harvest, are encroachment, siltation, and unabated pollution.
“The villagers who live on the banks of the Wular Lake depend on it either directly or indirectly. For the past several years, we have been experiencing a huge decline in fishing and water Nadru harvest,” Bashir Ahmad Dar another fisherman said.
Dar said that Nadru is the main source of income for the majority of people living here and due to decline in its production; there are apprehensions that many families will be directly affected from it.
Similarly other locals said that rampant pollution and degradation of water quality have affected the production of Nadru in the Wular.
“Rampant encroachments along the banks of water bodies have also led to the decline of Nadru production. The encroachments have gone unchecked and the administration has failed to take any action against the violators,” the locals said.
They said the Wular Lake, which is the livelihood source of thousands of fishermen of Bandipora and Sopore, would provide 30 per cent Nadru yield in the Kashmir valley, however, after the devastating floods of 2014, the production declined drastically.
“The production further declined over the past two years due to rampant pollution, degrading water quality and encroachments in the Lake,” said Abass Dar, a fisherman from Zurimanz village of Bandipora.
He said that Nadru is facing the threat of extinction from the lake due to the increasing pollution and the government has failed to restore the Lake to its original glory.
Abass claimed that they used to extract hundreds of kilograms of Nadru from the Lake before the devastating floods of 2014 and over the past few years, the production has declined further due to rampant pollution.
An official said that the work to restore the Lake and weed out the pollutants is going on. “The production of Nadru has declined drastically after September 2014 floods which caused pollution in the lake and the water quality also degraded. We are planning to revive the production of Nadru by sowing seeds along the banks of Wular Lake in Bandipora and Sopore as well,” he said.
The official maintained the work to restore the glory of Wular Lake under the previously approved project is going on from Saderkote and Banyari villages of Bandipora.
