| CAG Report pinpoints disappearance of 315 water bodies, shrinkage of 203 | | |  Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 6: A damning audit report has exposed the near-collapse of Jammu and Kashmir's lake conservation framework, revealing that 518 of the Union Territory's 697 recorded lakes have either vanished entirely or shrunk significantly — a crisis that auditors warn is accelerating climate vulnerability and flood risk across the region. The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), tabled in the J&K Legislative Assembly by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, found that the total lake area has declined by 2,851.26 hectares compared to the base year of 1967, based on data from the J&K Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing Department (EE&RSD). The assessment used 2014 as the reference year for the Kashmir division and 2020 for Jammu.
Of the 697 lakes surveyed, 315 — accounting for 45 per cent of the total and covering 1,537.07 hectares — have completely disappeared from official records. These include 80 lakes under Forest Department jurisdiction and 235 under the Revenue and Agriculture departments.
An additional 203 lakes have witnessed significant reduction in their surface area, the report noted.
The CAG warned that the disappearance and shrinkage of these water bodies has triggered widespread ecosystem degradation, including the loss of water resources, food security, and biodiversity, as well as the disruption of carbon, nutrient, and water cycles. The cumulative effect, auditors said, is a measurable rise in the region's climate vulnerability.
The report drew a direct link between shrinking lakes and J&K's catastrophic September 2014 floods, noting that lakes serve as critical natural buffers against inundation. Studies by multiple state, UT, and national-level institutions have similarly connected changes in lake land-use to heightened flood risk.
Governance fragmentation has compounded the ecological damage. Administrative control of J&K's lakes is currently divided among five separate departments — Forest, Revenue, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Tourism — a structure the CAG described as a key obstacle to coordinated conservation.
Primary drivers of lake loss were identified as land-use changes within lakes and their surrounding catchment areas, compounded by deforestation, climate change, and deteriorating catchment dynamics.
The audit found that active conservation efforts were effectively limited to just six lakes: Dal, Wular, Hokersar, Manasbal, Surinsar, and Mansar. For the remaining 691 water bodies, the Forest Department had neither identified eligible candidates nor formulated plans to seek funding under schemes of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
Budgetary allocations reflect the same neglect. Only approximately one per cent of J&K's CAPEX budget between 2017 and 2022 — amounting to Rs 560.65 crore — was directed toward the conservation of these six lakes.
Even Dal Lake, the Valley's most iconic water body, was not spared criticism. The report flagged ongoing land-use violations arising from non-acquisition of land from lake-dwellers, malfunctioning sewage treatment plants (STPs), ineffective de-weeding operations, and inadequate monitoring and surveillance infrastructure. |
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