Climate Crisis

Kashmir's iconic Dal Lake faces environmental and climate challenges

Kashmiri vendors push a handcart loaded with freshly harvested water lily stems. Water lilies grow abundantly in the lake, where local dwellers harvest their long stems with leaves to be sold to the livestock owners as green fodder for their cattle. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

Tourists enjoy shikara rides across the open waters of Dal Lake, taking in the scenic views of the surrounding mountains and houseboats. These expansive open waters serve as a central hub for tourism and leisure, offering visitors a panoramic view of the lake's iconic landscape. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

A young boy paddles a traditional boat past plastic waste along a backwater channel in the interiors of Dal Lake. Over the last five decades the lake has shrunk by roughly 40 percent and has become shallow due to heavy siltation. The constant flow of untreated sewage directly into the lake has caused severe pollution and subsequent environmental degradation. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

An elderly shopkeeper sits in front of his arts and craft store in the famous Meena Bazar located along a commercial area near the lake. Tourism remains a primary economic lifeline for local boatmen and shopkeepers operating along the main waterways of the Dal Lake. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

A fisherman paddles a traditional boat along a creek in the Telbal area as he heads toward the main waters of Dal Lake. Telbal creek serves as the primary inlet supplying approximately 80 percent of water to the lake. The water originates from the high altitude Marsar Lake in the Himalayas and flows down through Dachigam National Park before feeding into the lake’s ecosystem. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

A woman walks down a narrow alleyway that was once a navigable backwater channel interconnected with the interior of the lake. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

Tourists ride shikaras, traditional wooden boats with canopied seats used for transport and sightseeing, through the narrow interior waterways. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

Ghulam Mohammed, 65, a master craftsman with 50 years of experience, said that untreated sewage and illegal encroachments have severely polluted the lake. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

Young boys walk along a gravel pathway leading towards one of the hamlets of interior Dal Lake while passing a floating excavator anchored in the middle of a weed-choked backwater channel. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

A young boy catches a fish while sitting on a wooden footbridge spanning the backwaters of Dal Lake. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

A makeshift wooden walkway winds through floating lotus gardens and backwater channels in the interiors of Dal Lake. Lotus stem (nadru) a famous local delicacy, is widely cultivated throughout in the interior marsh lands of the lake. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

Kashmir’s Dal Lake faces environmental and climate challenges

Manzoor Ahmad, 50, stands outside his shop on an alleyway that was once a backwater channel of Dal Lake, where he spent his childhood swimming and catching fish before it was filled in and turned into a motorable lane. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

The network of wooden footbridges serves as the primary means of daily transit for residents. Most of the bridges were built over the past decade, replacing traditional boats. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]

"There was the time when we used to drink water directly from the lake, and today, I can’t even walk barefooted on this land, such is the poor condition of water these day," said the 55-year-old local farmer Ghulam Ahmad. [Yasir Iqbal/Getty Images]