The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has banned the use of motorboats and jet skis in Dal Lake and warned that any violation of the prohibition orders will be viewed as contempt of court.
The court directed the Lakes Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA), Tourism Department and Police to ensure that no fuel-powered motorboat, including motorised shikaras and Jet Skis, operates on the lake until further orders. The court’s order comes on the back of a petition that submitted that the motorboats and jet skis in Dal Lake are likely to damage its ecosystem and, therefore, a regulated and protective approach toward the issue needs to be adopted in a uniform manner.
“In the larger interest of justice, taking a comprehensive view of the submissions made, it is directed that the respondent authorities LCMA, Tourism, and Police shall ensure that no motorboat, whether it be a shikara motorboat, or Jet Ski which operates by fuel, is operated in the Dal Lake until further orders,” the order reads. The motorboats used by the administration for emergency, law and order and disaster management have been exempted from the prohibition order, the court said.
“We direct that in case any motorized boat is allowed to ply or is reported to ply, it shall be held as contempt of today’s order of this court, and therefore the officers concerned shall take a strict view by restricting and prohibiting such operations,” the court said in the order.
