JOIN USAround 100 students have sent postcards to Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra for stepping up efforts to revive the dying Naini Lake in north Delhi.
With the repeated pleas by the residents of the Model Town area to restore the water body not finding any ears within the government, the students have written to the minister and the mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation in the hope that the voices of the young will be heard.
The students, belonging to G D Goenka school in Model Town have made postcards with drawings depicting a healthy aquactic life in the lake to send a message to Mishra and Mayor Ravinder Gupta.
Once a popular destination in Delhi’s Model Town area and home to various birds, frogs and other creatures, the lake’s condition, over the years, has been worsening and it is almost ecologically dead now. It has low oxygen level and is devoid of plant life because of which fish and other creatures are finding it difficult to survive and are dying.
According to a survey by the Delhi government in 2014, of the 611 water bodies in the Capital, 274 have already dried up, while the remaining 337 that still have water are in a terrible condition.
Delhi Tourism has agreed to take up restoration of the lake and a plan for the same was submitted to the department by renowned ecologist and professor-emeritus, Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems Prof C R Babu in July.
However, it was put on the backburner as the MoU between the government and the North corporation, which is the land-owning agency, is yet to be renewed as it got expired two years back.
Prof Babu’s plan includes de-concretising the surrounding area, making green pathways, introducing certain fish species and planting trees to attract birds.
“We saw mass fish deaths first time in 2013. But since then nothing has been done. Even today during the march, we saw some dead fish floating at one corner of the lake,” said Richa Chaudhary, a resident who has been campaigning to save the lake.
Waterbody full of algae
“Due to concretisation, the amount of rainwater entering the lake has reduced, the water smells foul, mass fish deaths happen and lake is full of algae,” said Juhi Chaudhry, an environmentalist and a resident of Model Town.
The activist said that initially there were some tourism activities like water sports, archery, rifle-shooting, etc started by the government which were detrimental to the survival of the lake and prevented the birds from roosting.
“There is a small island inside the lake which is a bird habitat but due to tourism activities, their population had decreased. A natural water body was converted into a artificial one. Kapil Mishra has promised the revival and he agreed that the lake is not attracting enough visitors due to its bad condition. Now we feel it is time to walk the talk and revive the lake urgently,” Chaudhary said.
The officials from the Tourism ministry and Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) visited the lake for a survey around two weeks ago, there is no official communication by the ministry on when the work will start.