Lotus blooms in Kashmir's Wular lake after 30 years: ‘Thought we lost god's gift forever'

Indian Express

10-07-2025

Abdul Rashid Dar sits on the edge of Wular lake in Kashmir's Bandipora, staring in wonder. In front is a sea of pink lotuses, all in full bloom. 'I can't believe my eyes' he says as he delicately touches one. 'When I was a child, I would accompany my father to harvest the lotus stems but that was a long time ago. I thought we have lost this gift of God forever.'
Something remarkable is happening at Wular — Asia's largest freshwater lake located in Bandipora. The idyllic lake, located some 67 km from Srinagar and surrounded by the misty Harmukh mountains, is once again becoming home to lotuses 30 years after a devastating flood completely wiped them out of the area.
The change has been brought about thanks to conservation efforts by the Wular Conservation and Management Authority. The authority had begun desilting the lake in an effort to clear silt deposits from the flood.
'The lotus has seen a revival in areas where we have removed silt over the last few years. Since lotus seeds were buried deep inside the silt and soil, they couldn't grow. Now that the silt has been removed, lotus has again grown,' says Mudasir Ahmad, a zonal officer of the Wular Conservation and Management Authority.
For a populace struggling with falling incomes and rising unemployment, the development has economic implications – it means the revival of lotus stem harvesting, a traditional occupation here.
'It's almost a miracle,' 43-year-old Dar, whose father was a lotus stem farmer, says.
The unexpected turnaround
Located between Bandipora and Sopore towns and spread around 200 sq km, the lake was once full of lotuses. The stems, known locally as Nadru, are a delicacy in Kashmir, where it is cooked with fish or yoghurt to make a dish known as Nadru Yakhni.
Lotus also grows in Dal and Manasbal lake of the Valley, where harvesting its stem is a means of livelihood. A typically labour-intensive process, the harvesting process involves farmers diving neck deep into water to retrieve the stem.
image.pngIn September of 1992, Kashmir saw a devastating flood that caused considerable damage to the rich ecosystem of Wular lake, depositing a large quantity of silt that buried the lotus vegetation and affected the lake's water flow.
For residents, it meant a loss of livelihood. 'That year, the lotus was in full bloom,' Ghulam Hassan Reshi, a resident from Lankreshipora village on the shore of the lake, says. 'Then we lost the lotus forever. At least we thought that way, until now.'
An official, however, said that while the lotus stems couldn't grow for harvesting since 1992, records suggest that its rhizomes – or its creeping root stalk — were still present in the lake until 25 years ago.
The turnaround came unintended. In 2020, Wular Conservation and Management Authority (WUCMA) embarked on an ambitious project to reclaim the lake and its rich ecosystem.
Part of the project was to dredge up silt from the lake.
The efforts paid off — last year, lotus began showing first signs of revival. Encouraged, the authority dispersed lotus seed in the lake this year, Wular Conservation and Management Authority's zonal officer Mudasir Ahmad says.
'The dredging changed it all,' local resident Ghulam Hassan Reshi says. 'For many years, the villagers dispersed the lotus seed into the lake but nothing worked,' he says.
Meanwhile, efforts to revive Wular continue. The lake, whose fish is known for its distinct taste, has over the years become a receptacle for all the silt and waste thrown into the Jhelum river and the 25 other streams that feed it.
'We have removed 79 lakh cubic meters of silt from the lake so far,' says Owais Farooq Mir, a former official of the Wular Conservation and Management Authority who was with the authority until recently. 'We are also in process to construct retention basins on the major stream so that waste and silt is prevented from going into the lake'.
All this means additional income for the local community. At the lake, Abdul Aziz Dar, 60, watches some young boys click photos near the lake's edge.
'When some flowers bloomed last year, we didn't let anyone harvest them. We didn't want to lose them again,' he said. 'The good thing is that it is harvested in a season when there are very few options of work — from September to March.'
Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter. ... Read More