Drone survey to check Dal Lake encroachments

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 28

The government will use drones to conduct an aerial survey of the Dal Lake — the mascot of Kashmir’s timeless beauty and a magnet for tourists visiting the region — to check illegal constructions within and around its peripheries.

The month-long aerial topographical survey will be conducted by the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA), Srinagar, up to 200 m (approximately 14.00 sq km) from the fringes of the lake. The survey will also be done of the Nigeen Lake.

“LAWDA, engaged in comprehensive conservation and management plan of the Dal and Nigeen lakes, envisages conducting an aerial survey, photography and aerial videography through drones for checking illegal constructions within the lake and on its periphery,” read an official document.

It said a drone-based photogrammetric survey will be also conducted to obtain high resolution orthomosaics to be used to create computer-aided design and geographic information system-based map. “Successive aerial surveys would be undertaken once every six months to acquire fresh temporal change data sets. The data thus acquired will be used to track the temporal changes,” it said.

The lakes body will also prepare a comprehensive report based on the survey to analyse and highlight the temporal data changes. “Subsequent surveys will use the base map data to compare the temporal changes,” it said.

The decision to conduct the aerial survey has come against the recommendations of the Committee of Experts and the directions of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court issued on December 26 last year.

The HC had in April last year directed the Surveyor Authority of India (SAI) to undertake a survey of the Dal Lake to demarcate its boundary and put a halt on the encroachments.