Anchar was once a popular tourist destination in Kashmir’s main city Srinagar before the lake was neglected and pushed towards.
Its waters receded and a burgeoning housing colony continues to consume the area that the lake once covered.
Today, what remains of the lake is a stagnant pool of water with some fish still surviving. Locals from the area, also called Anchar, continue to fish in the lake that their own residences continue to consume each year as illegal constructions continue unabated.
Over the years, the locality earned a name for more than just environmental degradation. The locality came to be seen as a bastion of pro-freedom sentiments during the 2016 uprising when much of Kashmir remained quiet to the unilateral impositions.
Anchar is among the many lakes of Srinagar which have faced neglect as Dal remained at the heart of most conservation programs that too were unscientific in approach.
A few years ago, the High Court had noted that Anchar and nearby Gilsar lake had already vanished and turned into a marsh.
In 2016, National Green Tribunal had prohibited the Jammu and Kashmir governments and the Srinagar Municipal Corporation from throwing solid waste near the Anchar lake.
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