Joy And Relief As Lotus Flowers Bloom Again In Kashmiri Lake After Three Decades

Joy And Relief As Lotus Flowers Bloom Again In Kashmiri Lake After Three Decades

Lotus flowers are blooming again in Kashmir’s historically largest lake, having been freed from the grasp of underwater silt that strangled them for 3 decades.

The lake had already been shrunk dramatically by the conversion of shoreline and connected marshlands to agricultural areas by 1990. But in 1992, catastrophic flooding dumped thousands of tons of sediment into the lake, burying the lotus plant stems.

These stems formed a major part of the local diet, and at the height of its productivity, the cottage industry of harvesting them sustained 5,000 local workers. The stems were cooked and served in several dishes, but the silt ended all of that.

At the turn of the 20th century, Wural Lake spanned 84 square miles, but by 2007 it had diminished to just one-third of that. Willow cultivation along the banks ensured that over-sedimentation of the lake bottom continued. Parts of it become dumping grounds, and more and more of the lake’s fauna vanished.

By 2020, the local communities had had enough. With the taste of the lotus stems having been reduced to a fragment of a memory for the old, and a solemn children’s story to the young, the Wular Conservation and Management Authority (WUCMA) began a de-silting program.

Fed by the Jhelum River and its tributaries, WUCMA focused on controlling and preventing pollution from entering the lake through its flow, before beginning the long, slow, slimy process of dredging the lake.

5 years on, a mindboggling 8 million cubic meters of silt have been removed. The lotus roots that remained dormant all this time emerged, and for the first time in 33 years, the plants are flowering again.

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“This is not just the revival of a plant, it’s the resurrection of a cultural ecosystem,” Meera Sharma, a Delhi-based environmentalist, told the Guardian. “When nature heals, it revives everything it once nurtured—livelihoods, traditions, biodiversity. Seeing these flowers bloom again after decades is like watching history breathe.”

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While the lake was an important local tourist destination and cultural connection to the land as Sharma says, many are looking forward again to eating their favorite dish: nadru.

“Lotus stem connects our food to the land … now that it’s back, we’re preparing dishes the way our grandmothers did: slow, simple, and full of memory,” Tavir Ahmad, a chef at a local Kashmiri market, told the Guardian’s Tauseef Ahmad and Sajid Raina.