Dried up, destroyed beyond repairs main reasons for their abandonment
Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Apr 24: About 2,272 water bodies in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are “not in use” due to several reasons including dried up and destroyed beyond repair, Ministry of Jal Shakti census report has revealed.
Ministry of Jal Shakti released the first ever census of Water Bodies in convergence with the 6th Minor Irrigation (MI) Census under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Irrigation Census.”
The census report, a copy of which lies with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) has revealed that there are 9,765 water bodies in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and among them 7,493 are in use while as 2,272 water bodies are not in use.
The report has revealed that the 1,051 water bodies are not in use as they have dried up, 24 due to construction, 20 siltation, 214 destroyed behind repair, 01 salinity, 01 due to industrial effluents and 961 due to other reasons.
Among not in use water bodies, 16 are in urban areas while rest are in rural areas and among in use water bodies 7431 are in rural areas and 62 are in urban areas.
“The 2,272 not in use water bodies include 2,036 ponds, 29 tanks, 06 lakes, 26 reservoirs, 6 water conservation schemes and 169 others,” it said.
As per census, among 7,493 in use water bodies, 719 are being used for irrigation purposes, 12 industrial, 97 pisciculture, 5,986 for domestic/drinking purposes, 19 recreation, 56 religious, 129 groundwater purpose and 475 for other purposes.
Among in use water bodies, 3220 are ponds, 150 tanks, 31 lakes, 415 reservoirs, 23 water conservation schemes/percolation tanks/check dams and 3654 other water bodies.
As per census, 318 water bodies are under drought prone areas programme, 1144 in Tribal area, 27 flood prone, 73 Desert Development Programme (DDP) and 8,203 other water bodies—(KNO)
