From childhood Javid Ahmad, a resident of Zainakote area of Srinagar was impressed by the beauty of Hokersar wetland. The wetland lover has been on a clean-up mission of the wetland over the past 12 years.
28-year-old Javed was impressed by the migratory birds and the environment around the wetland as he lived in the vicinity of the wetland.
“Since my childhood, I used to go to the wetland to watch birds and for fishing purposes. It was a place where we could chill out. Later, I realised that there was trash and waste bottles at some places and I used to clean it just to save birds,” he said.
Javid has been cleaning the wetland over the past 12 years and removing trash from it with the help of a boat. “I remove the trash from the wetland and put it on its banks. Sometimes, I remove huge cardboard boxes filled with waste and trash,” he said.
Hokersar wetland in Srinagar is an eco-tourism destination and bird paradise as it attracts lakhs of migratory birds from Siberia, Central Asia and northern Europe.
“Now people have constructed houses and the wetland has been encroached along several places. People would also plant willow and poplar trees, a practice that has been stopped now,” he said.
As Javid grew older he brought a camera and he went on to capture the migratory birds which he had saved at his home. He has also visited almost all the wetlands in Kashmir and captured it in pictures.
When he was studying in 10th grade his father brought a two-wheeler for him which he used to travel to the wetlands of Kashmir valley.
“I want to see all the wetlands of Kashmir clean. All the youth should come forward and take up the mission of cleaning the wetlands,” he said.
The wetland with its vast waterways, marshes and vegetation is the biggest in the city and the second biggest in Kashmir covering an area of 13.54 sq km and gives an impression of a bird wonderland when one visits during arrival of migratory birds between Oct and April.
Javid said the wetland suffered major damage in 2020 when unplanned dredging and silt came into the wetland and affected the life there including birds. It pained him and he continued to remove trash from the wetland.
“I have learned that Hokersar wetland used to witness 10 lakh migratory birds which have reduced to 1 lakh. However, over the past two years the population is increasing,” he said.
Over the past four years, Javid, who is associated with construction business, has been working on a documentary that would highlight the plight of all the wetlands in Kashmir and what needs to be done to save them.
Hokersar is a shallow post-glacial water body, flanking the river Jhelum which runs across the valley. Hokersar is a permanent eutrophic lake surrounded by freshwater marshes on the flood plain of Jhelum River and is at about 10 Km. west of Srinagar.
The wetland was declared a Conservation Reserve under the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Wilderness Protection Act of 1978. In 2005, it was declared a Ramsar site under the Ramsar Convention, created for wetlands conservation and sustainable utilisation.
