Jul 18, 2004 12:11 PM
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(Updated Jul 18, 2004 12:11 PM)
Kolleru Lake in Peril
Kolleru lake, India?s largest freshwater body, is vanishing slowly - at least that is what satellites have revealed. Situated between Krishna and Godavari deltas in coastal Andhra Pradesh, the world-famous lake, which serves as a natural flood-balancing reservoir between the two southern deltas, is disappearing due to a host of man-made factors.
Images taken by the Indian remote sensing satellite IRS-1D have indicated that about 42 per cent of the 245 square-km lake was encroached for aquaculture while another 8.5 per cent area was occupied for agriculture. The rest of the lake is either being dried out by reclamation or is infested with weed.
?There was no stretch of clear water in the lake when the satellite took the images on February 9th, 2001. During our field visit in September 2003, we found that at many locations within the Lake more fishponds were being dug up and the situation is deteriorating more and more with time,? says Dr K Nageswara Rao, a faculty member of Andhra University in Vishakapatnam.
Dr Rao and his colleagues? advanced analysis of satellite pictures bears witness to the pathetic condition of the lake, which harbours one of the India?s prime coastal ecosystems supporting vulnerable species like gray pelican and waterfowl besides other resident and migratory birds.
But satellites show there were 1050 fishponds within the lake in addition to 38 dried up ponds together covering an area of 103 square km making up to 42 per cent of total area. ?Fresh fishponds are coming up and at least to my knowledge, there are no measures to improve the situation,? Dr Rao observed.
Besides the ponds and paddy fields, weeds like elephant grass and water hyacinth cover the rest of the area and reclamation on the lake is going on unhindered.
?If this type of human-induced degradation of the Kolleru lake were left unchecked, this once-pristine natural water body would permanently disappear sooner than later,? Dr Rao said publishing his analysis in the journal Current Science.
