To take the final call over the move of handing over Harike to the Eco-Task Force, the Punjab Wildlife Department is all set to put their heads together, in a high-level meeting, on Friday, December 10. Officials said that they were finding it difficult to tackle with the encroachers and poachers destroying the exquisiteness of the wetland, and the authorities concerned have decided to put in writing a comprehensive plan to entrust the Harike Wetland Bird Sanctuary to the eco-task force of the Army.

“There is lot of encroachment at Harike which is harming the environment, destroying the beauty of the surrounding. This has been going on for the past many years. Considering it difficult to deal with such mischievous encroachers, we are forced to ask the Territorial Army to come to our rescue,” Punjab Chief Conservator of Forests, Dr Kuldip Kumar Lomis told The Pioneer.

The scheduled meeting will be held under the chairmanship of State Chief Wildlife Warden, Gurbaz Singh. The officials of the State Wildlife Department, Deputy Commissioners and the police chiefs of Amritsar, Ferozepur, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala and senior-level officers of the Army will also participate in the deliberation.

Lomis added, “The encroachments, poaching and destruction of flora and fauna are going unchecked and have also become major sources of threat to the very existence of the wetland. Also, there is lack of proper infrastructure to check such instances. And because of the same, the officials deployed for its protection and conservation are not able to check and give requisite results.”

Well-known as Harike Lake Pattan Sanctuary, the rich in aquatic flora and fauna Harike wetland ecosystem has an area of 285.1 sq km spreading into four districts— Amritsar, Firozpur, Kapurthala and Jalandhar. Also acclaimed as India’s largest bird sanctuary, it is considered as the “bird watchers’ paradise” for its highly inviting terrains that attract hundreds of bird species, both migratory and residential.

The encroached area, Lomis informed, covered around 400-500 hectares. “Though the standard size of the battalion is 130 men or so, which will be quite high for the Harike alone, we are chalking out the plan to ask for the required number or to carve them up for other wetlands too,” he said.

The expected expenditure would be around `4 cr. “The in-principle approval has already been given by the Centre. Also, the Centre itself has asked to take the services of the Territorial Army,” he added. Coming into existence in 1953 after a barrage was constructed on the confluence of the Beas and Sutlej, and subsequently declared a bird sanctuary in 1982, the wetland is shrinking every year.

In the past too, Harike suffered a huge loss in view of the wildly spread water hyacinth and siltation that also led to dwindling number of its prime attraction—the migratory birds. At that point of time too, the Army stepped in and rid the lake of the menace of water hyacinth under its Operation Sahyog, launched by Vajra Corps in August 1999.