To save the famed Naini lake, considered as an identity of the tourist hotspot Nainital, which is now in a precarious State with several islands surfacing due to the depleting water level of the lake, Raj Bhawan convened a brainstorming session with the experts in Dehradun on Tuesday.
Raj Bhawan is concerned with the lake city, known for ages to attract tourists from across the world, losing fast its charm with the plummeting water level of the lake posing impediments for boating-something the tourists enjoy a great deal. The State Government is concerned too. After the new Government had assumed charge it had given the responsibility of the maintenance of the lake to the irrigation department, taking it away from the PWD with the former department maintaining the embankments. The State Government hopes that the irrigation department would do something to recharge the lake.
With Governor Krishan Kant Paul taking initiatives to save the lake, a seminar on the conservation of the lake was hosted at Raj Bhawan at his behest on Tuesday where the environmentalists and the scientists expressed their views on how to save the lake from the imminent danger it has been facing.
Paul said that the lake being a major source of income through tourism, the experts should suggest things which would help the lake regain its past glory. It is learnt that the experts have given several suggestions with all of them agreeing that the rampant construction works going on around the lake has resulted in the depletion of the underground water level.
They stressed on the water sources that feed the lake must be revived. They opined that the use of cement in the construction activities aside from the huge traffic pressure and global warming has led to the precarious water level condition of the lake.
Besides, the decreasing rainfall during the winter, earthquakes and landslides are leading to the natural water sources fast drying up. The incessant flow of the tourists and the growing population of the lake city are leading to more and more water being pumped out of the lake, they suggested.
Most of them laid thrust on arrangements to ensure that the rainwater directly flows into the lake to help it replenish its water. They said that the local administration should make the people aware of the need for rainwater harvesting. The scientists said that aside from controlling the growing volume of the traffic, rationing of water per person should be enforced. If these are combined with saving rainwater and stopping water leakage, things would turn better in the coming days. They further said that a limnology department should be created in the state for conservation and enhancement of the lakes.
The specialists said that the rain water wasting away in the sewage lines must be stopped at any cost. There should be efforts instead to make sure that water flowing through the residential houses and the hotels get into the lake directly. They said that the administration should make the people and the hoteliers aware of the need to conserve the rain water so that it gets into the lake. They again suggested formation of a lake supervision committee under the chairmanship of Kumaon commissioner.
Among those present on the occasion were the Kumaon commissioner Chandrashekhar Bhatt, secretary to the Governor Ravinath Raman, lake Development Authority’s chairman Indu Kumar Pandey, DG UCOST Rajendra Dobhal, Nainital DM Deependra Chaudhary and senior journalist Rajiv lochan Shah aside from experts and scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, National Institute of Hydrology (Roorkee), SDF Indian Institute of Water Harvesting and Conservation ,IIRS.