Invasive fish have caused an ecological disaster at Mansar Lake

Last year, my friend Venus Upadhyay of The Epoch Times, a native of Jammu in India made me aware of what was happening at the sacred Mansar Lake in the Samba District of Jammu. It was a shocking story of one of the largest freshwater lakes in the Shivalik Mountains. The Mansar-Surinsar Lakes are Ramsar Wetland sites. Once upon a time, the Mansar was full of small, indigenous fish which were considered sacred by the Hindus of Jammu. Feeding the fish was also regarded as a sacred ritual and people often threw food into the water. Turtles existed in the lake but they were shy and rarely came to the shore. The turtles ate the small fish and lived happily. Over a period of time, the lake got invaded by a bigger species of fish which ate up all the smaller fish. Soon, a new phenomenon emerged. When people went to feed aquatic animals as per Hindu customs, the invading fish began to swarm the shores. Soon, the turtles began to come to the shore looking for food too because the small fish which they fed on were no longer available. The people did not care much for what was happening and continued to feed the invader fish which began to multiply. <a href="https://medium.com/@sahana.singh/invasive-fish-have-caused-an-ecological-disaster-at-mansar-lake-aba0446bb603">Visit Now</a>