Bandipora, Aug 7: The increasing pollution in the Asia’s largest fresh water lake, Wular here has adversely affected the production of water chestnut, threatening the livelihood of scores of people. 
 “The pollution in Wular has resulted in decline of water chestnut production and has also affected its quality,” an extractor Ghulam Muhammad said.
 Wular is the only source of Chestnut production in Jammu and Kashmir, yielding approximately 4000-5000 tons of nuts annually, locals said. However, this year the extractors were perturbed to witness drastic decline in the production, they added
 “We were expecting more than 6000 tonnes of produce this year, but the growing pollution in the lake has affected the crop” Ghulam Muhammad Kawa said  adding “the dumping of waste in the lake is the main cause of decline as it hinders the growth of the Chestnut plant.”
 “Most of the areas in Wular which witnesses abundant growth of chestnut plant have failed to yield anything as sewerage flows directly into the lake at these points,” he said, adding “among ten leafy plants seven are decomposed and fruitless.”
 “The Municipalities in the three townships of Bandipora Sumbal, Bandipora and Hajin are dumping waste into the Wular,” the locals said, adding the authorities failed to stop it despite repeated pleas by the chestnut extractors.
 The water chestnut extractors said the growing pollution in the lake had caused unknown diseases to the plants. “Thousands of households residing in around 13 villages located on the banks of Wular are solely dependent on the lake which produce include chestnut, fish and Nadroo. And the decline in the production of these has threatened their livelihood with some of the extractors turning to other jobs in order to make their ends meet,” the extractors added.
 The chestnut extractors have appealed to the government to compensate them as the produce this year was badly hit by the disease caused due to pollution. “We appeal to the government to compensate as we are unable to make our ends meet,” the extractors said.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 7 Aug 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 7 Aug 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 8 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST