Kabartal Lake, Asia’s largest freshwater lake nestled in Bihar’s Begusarai district and designated as a Ramsar Wetland site in 2020, is gasping for breath due to the State Government’s inaction.
The unchecked expansion of human settlements, agricultural activities, and infrastructure development around this lake, once a paradise for large numbers of winged birds, has encroached upon its natural habitat.
The development has a debilitating impact on the oxbow-shaped lake leading to a reduction in its size from its original 7,000-hectare expanse to just over 2,620 hectares.
Standing ruined, the lake has now been deserted even by migratory birds, which are now seeking other sites for breeding and resting purposes. It used to be home to several aquatic flora and fauna.
To add to the woes of this water body which was once sprawled over 7,000 hectares, is the construction of an embankment on the nearby Burhi Gandak River that has choked the major water inlet to the wetland.
Poaching of migratory birds, once abundant in the area, further exacerbates the ecological imbalance and undermines conservation efforts.
It was first declared a protected area by the State government in 1986, and later, a sanctuary by the Central Government, to prevent poaching of birds.
Oxbow lake-like shape is typically crescent-shaped and common feature in floodplains and low-lying areas near rivers, like in the cases of this water body also famously known as Kanwar Lake.
It is formed by the meandering Gandak River. The site lies in Indo-Gangetic plains of North Bihar which is one of the most productive flood- plains of the world and accommodates a large population.
Intriguingly while the Centre identified it as Bihar’s first Ramsar Site in a bid to put it on the global map, tourists coming here express disappointment when they see the condition of the lake, which bears no resemblance to the descriptions they have read or heard about, according to reports.
Such has been the apathy of the authorities that despite being declared a protected area by the Bihar Government in 1986 and a bird sanctuary by the Centre in 1989, overall, there has been a large-scale reduction in wetlands in Bihar as low as 2620 hectares.
Even though locals depend on farming, encroachment has been growing. Due to the encroachment of the wetland for agricultural practices, the Kabartal wetland’s declining ecosystem is visible, as is the ongoing loss in the wetland area.
Despite the proclamation of a bird sanctuary, numerous birds have been designated as fragile or endangered negatively impacting species, according to a study ‘Kabartal (Kanwar) Lake:
First Ramsar Wetland Site of Bihar’ published in ResearchGate. It was presented at the 9th International Multidisciplinary Conference on Current Research Trends-2023, last year.
The authors of the article are Bijay Kumar Das, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, NIT Patna, Khushbu Kumari, Independent researcher from Patna, Avi Kush, a Civil Engineering student from SMVDU, Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, Arpita Srivastav from Department of Architecture and Planning, NIT Patna, and Sumit Kumar, a wildlife photographer.
