Mass Tourism and Water Quality in Lidder Valley, Kashmir

Impact of anthropogenic activities on water quality of LidderRiver in Kashmir Himalayas

Irfan Rashid & Shakil Ahmad Romshoo

Received: 31 March 2012 /Accepted: 12 September 2012# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

Abstract The pristine waters of Kashmir Himalaya areshowing signs of deterioration due to multiple reasons.This study researches the causes of deteriorating waterquality in the Lidder River, one of the main tributaries ofJhelum River in Kashmir Himalaya. The land use andland cover of the Lidder catchment were generatedusing multi-spectral, bi-seasonal IRS LISS III (October2005 and May 2006) satellite data to identify the extentof agriculture and horticulture lands that are the mainnon-point sources of pollution at the catchment scale. Atotal of 12 water quality parameters were analyzed overa period of 1 year. Water sampling was done at eightdifferent sampling sites, each with a varied topographyand distinct land use/land cover, along the length ofLidder River. It was observed that water quality deteri-orated during the months of June–August that coincideswith the peak tourist flow and maximal agricultural/horticultural activity. Total phosphorus, orthophosphatephosphorus, nitrate nitrogen, and ammoniacal nitrogenshowed higher concentration in the months of July andAugust, while the concentration of dissolved oxygendecreased in the same period, resulting in deteriorationin water quality. Moreover, tourism influx in the LidderValley shows a drastic increase through the years, and

particularly, the number of tourists visiting the valleyhas increased in the summer months from June toSeptember, which is also responsible for deterioratingthe water quality of Lidder River. In addition to this, theextensive use of fertilizers and pesticides in the agricul-ture and horticulture lands during the growing season(June–August) is also responsible for the deterioratingwater quality of Lidder River.

Keywords Water quality analysis . Remote sensing .

Land use . Land cover . Visual image interpretation

Introduction

The rivers are a refuge to many plant and animalspecies besides harboring precious resources of freshwater. Unfortunately, rivers have long been used andabused for the disposal of wastes. Although the rivershave the capacity of self-purification, this capacity isaltered because of anthropogenic activities in the rivercatchment, leading to the destruction of this importantecosystem. Humans now strongly influence almostevery major aquatic ecosystem, and their activitieshave dramatically altered the fluxes of growth-limiting nutrients from the landscape to receivingwaters. Unfortunately, these nutrient inputs have hadprofound negative effects upon the quality of surfacewaters worldwide (Smith 2003). Surface waters aremost exposable to pollution due to their accessibilityfor disposal of wastewaters (Samarghandi et al. 2007).

Environ Monit AssessDOI 10.1007/s10661-012-2898-0

I. Rashid : S. A. Romshoo (*)Department of Earth Sciences, University of Kashmir,Hazratbal,Srinagar, Kashmir 190006, Indiae-mail: [email protected]

Both the anthropogenic influences such as urban, in-dustrial, and agricultural activities increasing exploita-tion of water resources as well as natural processes,such as precipitation inputs, erosion, and weatheringof crustal materials, degrade surface waters and dam-age their use for drinking, recreational, and otherpurposes (Jarvie et al. 1998; Simeonov et al. 2003;Mahvi et al. 2005; Nouri et al. 2008; Karbassi et al.2008a, b). Yadav and Kumar (2011) monitored thewater quality of Kosi River in India and concludedthat industrialization, urbanization, and modern agri-culture practices have direct impact on deterioratingwater quality.

Seasonal variation in precipitation, surface runoff,interflow, ground water flow, and pumped in and out-flows have a strong effect on river discharge andsubsequently on concentration of pollutants in the riverwater (Vega et al. 1998; Monavari and Guieysse 2007;

Khadka and Khannal 2008; Mtethiwa et al. 2008;Twesigye et al. 2011). Studies have established that landuse activity significantly influences nutrient loadingsand discharges (Dillon and Kirchner 1975; Hill 1978;Beaulac and Reckhow 1982; Lowrance et al. 1984;Correll et al. 1992; Romshoo andMuslim 2011) or haveshown that agricultural catchments discharge higheramounts of nutrients than forested catchments.Nutrient export from pasture and grazing is not signifi-cantly different than the export from forestland use(Beaulac and Reckhow 1982), but discharges of nitro-gen and phosphorus significantly increased as the per-cent of cropland increased (Correll et al. 1992).

Hill et al. (1978) found that both annual loss andmean annual concentrations of nitrate are correlatedwith land use activity. Seasonal and long-term varia-tions in nutrient export appeared to be important fac-tors (Hill et al. 1978; Correll et al. 1992). Catchment

Fig. 1 Location of the study area

Environ Monit Assess

Table 1 Physicochemical analysis of Lidder waters across different seasons

Parameters Month S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 Average

pH April 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.3 7.3 7.8 7.91 7.96 7.48

July 7.13 7.22 7.48 7.05 7.41 7.9 8.1 8.43 7.59

August 7.12 7.18 7.46 7.2 7.44 7.9 8.52 8.8 7.70

October 7.04 7.1 7.22 7.11 7.26 7.35 7.67 7.91 7.33

Conductivity (μScm−1) April 90 130 100 90 100 120 120 130 110.00

July 120 128 115 92 112 128 132 144 121.38

August 130 130 120 98 120 126 136 148 126.00

October 88 122 102 92 100 104 116 126 106.25

Total chloride (mgL−1) April 22 20 20 24 24 22 22 24 22.25

July 30 30 34 36 34 34 38 46 35.25

August 28 30 28 34 36 38 40 48 35.25

October 18 18 24 16 18 26 24 28 21.50

Dissolved oxygen (mgL−1) April 10.4 10 8.8 10.8 10 9.6 9.4 9.4 9.80

July 7.8 7.3 7.2 9.6 9.6 8.3 7.2 7.2 8.03

August 7.8 7.8 7.6 7.8 7.4 6.8 6.8 6.4 7.30

October 11.8 11.2 11 12.2 11.4 11.2 10.8 10.6 11.28

Biological oxygen demand (mgL−1) April 11 11.4 11.8 10.2 12 13.6 14.2 15.8 12.50

July 12.6 12.8 13 11 11 12.2 13 16.4 12.75

August 12.6 12.6 12.8 12.4 13 15.4 16.4 18 14.15

October 8.2 9.4 9.6 7.2 9 9.6 10.2 10.4 9.20

Total solids (mgL−1) April 2.2 2.25 2.34 2.32 2.44 2.52 2.58 3.4 2.51

July 2.34 2.36 2.41 2.54 2.62 2.64 2.78 3.48 2.65

August 2.3 2.3 2.39 2.48 2.6 2.62 2.67 3.96 2.67

October 2.1 2.01 2.28 1.7 2.12 2.18 2.28 2.38 2.13

Total dissolved solids (mgL−1) April 1.3 1.43 1.58 1.58 1.76 1.81 1.93 1.95 1.67

July 1.34 1.51 1.56 1.6 1.72 1.87 1.96 1.99 1.69

August 1.3 1.2 1.34 1.24 1.68 1.88 1.98 2.3 1.62

October 1.2 1.22 1.24 1.18 1.34 1.48 1.62 1.7 1.37

Total suspended solids (mgL−1) April 0.9 0.82 0.76 0.74 0.68 0.71 0.65 1.45 0.84

July 1 0.85 0.85 0.94 0.9 0.77 0.82 1.49 0.95

August 1 0.9 1.05 1.24 0.92 0.74 0.69 1.66 1.03

October 0.9 0.79 1.04 0.52 0.78 0.7 0.66 0.68 0.76

Nitrate nitrogen (μgL−1) April 180 187 210 177 225 230 230 235 209.25

July 198 200 205 196 226 232 236 244 217.13

August 267 268 280 210 247 287 310 325 274.25

October 160 176 188 140 160 187 196 230 179.63

Ammoniacal nitrogen (μgL−1) April 112 124 136 108 140 142 144 148 131.75

July 132 134 134 128 140 144 148 153 139.13

August 166 167 176 134 156 180 184 198 170.13

October 94 106 126 78 92 122 132 142 111.50

Orthophosphate phosphorus (μgL−1) April 24 28 42 32 44 38 44 46 37.25

July 30 42 42 34 48 62 66 72 49.50

August 32 44 46 44 48 64 68 80 53.25

October 18 28 32 22 30 38 42 46 32.00


characteristics such as drainage density, channel slope,and basin relief ratio are also significantly positivelycorrelated with discharge and nutrient loss (Hill et al.1978). Land cover change plays a pivotal role in regionalsocial and economic development and global environ-mental changes (Xiuwan 2002). A number of researchworks have been carried out by using various methodol-ogies and algorithms to derive land cover and changeinformation from different sets of remotely sensed data(Singh 1986, 1989; Tateishi and Kajiwara 1991;Lichtenegger 1992; Muchoney and Haack 1994;Wismann 1994; Lambin 1996; Sailor et al. 1997;Romshoo 2003; Romshoo et al. 2011). Although tourismplays a vital role in generating both national and localrevenue, it has an adverse effect on the environment(Pandey et al. 1995). The significance of ecologicalimpacts from tourism and recreation has been recognizedwidely by protected area management agencies andresearchers (Buckley 2001, 2002; Leung and Marion2000; Newsome et al. 2002; Sirakaya et al. 2001).

During recent years, rapid increase in the popula-tion has resulted in the establishment of new settle-ments in the catchment of Lidder River. Humans in theprocess began to degrade the environment, particularlythe aquatic ecosystem, by deforestation and denuda-tion of drainage basin. Also, vast forest areas wereconverted to agriculture and pastures degraded be-cause of overgrazing by the cattle. Population densityalso exerts an important influence on nutrient concen-trations in river systems (Caraco and Cole 1999).Predominantly urban catchments generally have in-creasing nutrient loading rates with an increasing per-centage of impervious land area (Beaulac andReckhow 1982). This is attributable to the fact thathydraulic characteristics and land activities are influ-ential factors in nutrient loading rates in urban land useareas. Currently, one of the visible problems with theLidder waters is high pollution load contributed bydomestic, agricultural, and tourism sectors. One more

threat to the rich water resource of Lidder is theseasonal inflow of Amarnath pilgrims during the pe-riod from June to August. Thus, the main impact ofundesirable human activities is responsible for accel-erated flow of nutrients from terrestrial to aquaticportion of the catchment. In this context, the presentstudy was undertaken.

Study area

The study area is Lidder valley (Fig. 1) which lies tothe North of Anantnag district (Jammu and Kashmir,India) in the central Himalayan mountain range withthe geographical coordinates of 33°4′–34°15′ N lati-tude and 75°05′–75°32′ E longitude. The valley is50 km long and has a varied topography with thealtitudinal extremes of 1,600–5,200 m. The most im-portant settlement in the Lidder valley is the town ofPahalgam with a lot of hotels and restaurants.Pahalgam is an important tourist destination and alsogateway to many treks including the one to the holycave of Amarnath—sacred to Hindus.

Lidder River, one of the important right banktributaries of river Jhelum, is formed by two mountaintorrents which flow from North–East and North–West.The eastern stream trickles from the snow on thesouthern slopes of Panjtarni Mountains and flows intooligotrophic Sheshnag Lake. Leaving the Sheshnag,the stream flows in a westerly direction, joining thewestern branch at Pahalgam. The western branch hasits origin from Kolhai Mountains and is joined by thestream flowing from Tarsar and Chandasar lakes.After the confluence of the two streams at Pahalgam,the river flows in southerly direction. In its passagethrough the lower part of the valley, the river separatesinto numerous channels in the vicinity of twin townsof Anantnag and Bijbehara. Lidder joins river Jhelumat Gur after traveling a course of 70 km approximately.

Table 1 (continued)

Parameters Month S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 Average

Total phosphorus (μgL−1) April 38 46 72 52 76 68 78 84 64.25

July 52 70 72 62 84 106 108 116 83.75

August 54 72 78 70 86 110 112 128 88.75

October 36 44 52 38 54 66 70 82 55.25


The climate of the area is subhumid temperate. Themajor portion of rainfall is received fromMarch to May,and the period from November to February receivesheavy snowfall. The geology of the area is mainly com-posed of Silurian Shale, Panjal Traps, Muth Quartizite,Syringothris Limestone, Fenestella Shale, Quartzite, andAgglomeratic Slate (Middlemiss 1910; Bions andMiddlemiss 1928), ranging in age from Devonian toUpper Permian (Wadia 1976). A major fault roughlytrending NNE–SSW has brought Fenestella Quartzitein juxtaposition with Agglomeratic Slate (Kaul 1976).

Lidder River serves as a drinking water source to ahuge population lying in its catchment. Besides,Lidder River is important for agriculture as it servesas a source of irrigation for the same. The river alsoharbors rich resource of fisheries particularly browntrout. Hence, the river is socioeconomically importantfor the population in its catchment.

Materials and methods

Water quality analysis

Eight water sampling sites were taken along the lengthof the river for physicochemical analysis (Fig. 1).Before collecting the water samples, all the samplebottles were washed with Laboline and rinsed withdistilled water. Water sampling was done during morn-ing hours from 8:30 am to 12:00 noon. The sampleswere collected in airtight glass jars of 3-l capacity.Separate samples were collected in 250-ml glass bot-tles for the estimation of dissolved oxygen (DO). Allthe samples were transported to the laboratory forrefrigeration and were analyzed within 48 h. Twelvephysicochemical parameters were analyzed in thepresent study which includes pH, electric conductivity,dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, total

Fig. 2 Land use land cover map of Lidder River catchment


chlorides, total solids, total suspended solids, totaldissolved solids, ammoniacal nitrogen, nitrate nitro-gen, total phosphorus, and orthophosphate phospho-rus. Analysis was done for all the four seasons viz,spring, summer, autumn, and winter in 2007. Analysisof physicochemical parameters was done priority-wise. pH, conductivity, DO, nitrates, and phosphateswere determined immediately followed by others. Thephysicochemical parameters were analyzed as perstandard methods (APHA and AWWA 1999).Dissolved oxygen was estimated by modifiedWinkler’s method, total chlorides by argentometricmethod (Mackerath et. al. 1978), ammoniacal nitrogenand nitrate nitrogen by salicylate method (CSIR1974), and total phosphorus and orthophosphate phos-phorus by Stannous Chloride method (APHA 1999).

Tourism data

The environmental impact of tourism is assessed pri-marily through the physicochemical analysis of waterquality because it is an excellent indicator of humanuse of the ecosystem. Monthly tourism data from 1997to 2011 were acquired from Jammu and KashmirTourism Department to analyze the seasonal variationin tourist flow. Also, data pertaining to pilgrims visit-ing holy Amarnath cave annually from 1979–2009were acquired. Tourism data were correlated with

water quality results in order to assess the impact oftourism on water quality.

Land use land cover mapping

Bi-seasonal satellite data IRS-P6-LISS-III pertaining toOctober 2005 and May 2006 were used to map landcover types in Lidder catchment. IRS-P6-LISS-III withas spatial resolution of 23.5 m, Path/Row 92/46 (19October 2005), 92/47 (19 October 2005), 93/46 (24October 2005), 92/46 (26 May 2006), 92/47 (23 May2006), and 93/46 (29 April 2006) were used. LISS IIIoperates in four bands: green band with a wavelengthranging from 0.52 to 0.59 μm, red band with a wave-length ranging from 0.62 to 0.68 μm, near infrared bandwith a wavelength ranging from 0.77 to 0.86 μm, andshort-wave infrared with a wavelength ranging from1.55 to 1.70 μm. Land use land cover mapping wasdone as per the standards laid by NNRMS (Anonymous2005). For delineating land use land cover satellite datawere processed. Processing of satellite data involvedgeorectification, georeferencing, co-registration, andmosaicing appropriate scenes of the study area.Onscreen image interpretation technique was thenemployed for differentiating Land Use Land Cover(LULC) after using various image-processing techni-ques like image enhancement, filtering, etc. to enhancethe interpretability of the LULC classes.

Table 2 Recent tourist inflowinto Lidder valley Year Non-pilgrim tourists Total no. of tourists

Domestic Foreign Local Pilgrim tourists

1997 6,340 291 5,396 79,035 91,062

1998 8,340 365 6,396 149,000 164,101

1999 58,162 673 36,322 114,000 209,157

2000 58,775 679 31,376 173,334 262,164

2001 49,744 650 29,205 119,037 198,636

2002 11,468 378 27,533 110,793 150,172

2003 60,249 1,301 375,263 153,314 590,127

2004 158,549 3,715 251,513 400,000 813,777

2005 273,121 3,899 440,649 388,000 1,105,669

2006 254,590 2,975 444,604 265,000 967,169

2007 149,413 2,094 341,966 213,565 707,038

2008 131,422 2,131 163,898 498,198 795,649

2009 130,675 2,106 451,546 373,419 957,746

2010 159,860 2,218 63,242 458,212 683,532

2011 277,731 4,918 422,712 635,000 1,350,361


Results and discussion

Water quality

The results of water quality analysis are summarizedin Table 1. Water was alkaline with pH value rangingfrom 7.1 to 8.43. Gradual increase in pH from site I tosite VIII is related to increasing pollution pressureresulting because of tourist and agricultural activitiesin the catchment of Lidder.

Total chloride concentration ranged from 16 to44 mgL−1. Chlorides are widely distributed in nature

as salts of sodium, potassium, and calcium. Chloridesare leached from various rocks into soil and water byweathering. The chloride ion is highly mobile and istransported to closed basins (WHO 1996). The con-centration of total chlorides increased downstreamwhich can be attributed to the waste inflow in the formof domestic sewage.

Dissolved oxygen showed inverse relationship withtemperature, which is in agreement with Henry’s Law(IUPAC 1997). The maximum concentration of dis-solved oxygen was recorded in the spring season andlate autumn. Difference of nearly 2 mgL−1 between

Fig. 3 a Total number oftourists visiting Lidder val-ley from 1997 to 2011. bNumber of pilgrim tourists(Yatris) visiting Lidder val-ley from 1980 to 2011


upstream and downstream stations was observed insome months, which is an indicator of heavy organicpollution in the lower reaches owing to flushing ofsewage directly into Lidder River by nearby settlements.

TDS was maximum during summer months whichcan be attributed to accelerated snowmelt, increasingrunoff, rainfall in the catchment of Lidder, grazing,and tourist activities. Hence, the river downstream isaffected by silt-impregnated waters derived from itscatchment.

Calcium was the dominant cation at all stationsbecause of the presence of calcium-rich rocks(limestone) in the catchment of Lidder (Bions andMiddlemiss 1928). The concentration increased fromstation I to station VIII. A similar behavior was shownby magnesium whose concentration increased down-stream. The only source of magnesium is dolomite inthe catchment of Lidder River.

Nitrate nitrogen increased significantly down-stream, which is related to the entry of nitrogenouswastes from tourist activities (bathing and defecatingon the river banks) and agricultural activities.Agricultural activities are predominant in plains ofLidder valley (Fig. 2) which include Aishmuqam (site7), Mattan (site 8), and Bijbehara. The exceptionallyhigh nitrate concentration downstream can be attribut-ed to the use of large quantities of nitrogenous fertil-izers in its catchment which ultimately find their wayin Lidder River. Ammoniacal nitrogen, total phospho-

rus, and orthophosphate phosphorus showed almost asimilar trend as that of nitrates. Phosphorus contami-nation is attributed to high anthropogenic pressure(sites 6, 7, and 8) and presence of Silurian shale inthe catchment of Lidder River (Middlemiss 1910).

Tourist data analysis

Time series of the tourist data from 1997 to 2011 wasanalyzed (Table 2) to investigate if there is any linkbetween the deteriorating water quality and number oftourist arrivals in Pahalgam. We also analyzed thenumber of pilgrim tourists visiting holy Amarnathcave from 1980 to 2011 (Fig. 3). Both the data showedan increasing trend across the years as is reflected byr2 values of 0.728 and 0.683, respectively. In the1990s, tourist inflow into the Lidder Valley was verylittle owing to the turmoil in the region. Since 2003,the situation improved, and there has been an expo-nential surge in the number of tourists visiting LidderValley (Fig. 3). Year 2011 saw more than 13.5 lakhtourists visiting Lidder valley, the highest numberrecorded till date, while the lowest number has beenrecorded in 1997. Similarly, 2011 saw 635,000 pilgrimtourists (highest) visiting Amarnath cave, while as thepilgrim data show, a decrease in the 1980s and 1990s.The ever increasing tourist inflow into Lidder valleyhas serious ecological consequences especially pollut-ing the pristine waters of the Lidder River.

Table 3 Time series of total monthly tourists visiting Lidder valley from 1997 to 2008 (excluding pilgrim tourists)

Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009Month

January 78 97 618 586 514 254 2,819 2,670 4,631 4,531 4,997 1,919 3,770

February 53 67 425 404 334 175 1,941 1,839 3,179 3,120 3,441 1,322 2,596

March 45 56 357 338 296 147 1,627 1,541 2,674 2,616 2,885 1,108 2,177

April 247 311 1,970 1,868 1,629 810 8,985 8,511 14,744 14,444 15,930 6,119 12,020

May 811 1,019 6,461 6,129 5,365 2,657 29,474 27,920 48,419 47,379 52,255 20,071 39,428

June 4,529 5,687 36,064 34,208 30,001 14,831 164,511 155,835 270,304 264,448 230,731 112,025 220,067

July 4,466 5,607 35,558 33,728 29,580 14,623 162,203 153,649 266,512 260,738 75,146 110,453 216,979

August 1,271 1,595 10,114 9,594 8,414 4,159 46,139 43,706 75,810 74,168 74,200 31,419 61,720

September 268 335 2,126 2,017 1,759 874 9,698 9,186 15,934 15,589 17,193 6,604 12,973

October 49 62 394 374 318 162 1,799 1,704 2,945 2,891 3,189 1,225 2,406

November 133 166 1,056 1,001 878 434 4,815 4,561 7,912 7,740 8,537 3,279 6,441

December 77 97 614 583 511 253 2,803 2,655 4,605 4,505 4,969 1,909 3,749

Total 12,027 15,101 95,757 90,830 79,599 39,379 436,813 413,777 717,669 702,169 493,473 297,451 584,327


As per analysis done by the Centre of Research forDevelopment (CORD) in 2011, about 2,682 metrictons of solid wastes were generated comprising975 metric tons from hotels and 1,707 metric tonsfrom tourists. From June to August 2011, about83 % (2,231 metric tons) of total annual solid wasteswere generated with an average generation of about24.77 metric tons/day. The per capita generation ofsolid waste is about 2.40 kg/day. In absence of anyproper waste disposal mechanism or facility, it hasbeen observed that a considerable number of hotelsdump their wastes openly in the forest area and along

the main river front, thus exposing the water body to ahigh risk of contamination. There are also many areasin and around Pahalgam town without any solid wastecollection/disposal mechanism. The huge quantityof garbage, in dispersed form, is being disposedoff around these areas and finally finds its wayinto Lidder River. The pilgrimage tourist basecamps at Nunwan, Zagipal, Chandanwari, andSheshnag are not adequately equipped to suffi-ciently deal with the scientific disposal of solidwastes during the pilgrimage period. Considerablequantities of solid waste from these camps, main

Table 4 Correlation between average of water quality parameters and tourist arrival in Lidder vale (ρ is correlation coefficient)

Parameters Number of tourists ρ Parameters Number of tourists ρ

pH Conductivity (μScm−1)

April 7.48 15,930 April 110.00 15,930

July 7.59 287,569 July 121.38 287,569

August 7.70 81,800 August 126.00 81,800

October 7.33 3,189 0.50 October 106.25 3,189 0.62

Total chloride (mgL−1) DO (mgL−1)

April 22.25 15,930 April 9.80 15,930

July 35.25 287,569 July 8.03 287,569

August 35.25 81,800 August 7.30 81,800

October 21.50 3,189 0.77 October 11.28 3,189 −0.62BOD (mgL−1) Total solids (mgL−1)

April 12.50 15,930 April 2.51 15,930

July 12.75 287,569 July 2.65 287,569

August 14.15 81,800 August 2.67 81,800

October 9.20 3,189 0.40 October 2.13 3,189 0.61

TDS (mgL−1) TSS (mgL−1)

April 1.67 15,930 April 0.84 15,930

July 1.69 287,569 July 0.95 287,569

August 1.62 81,800 August 1.03 81,800

October 1.37 3,189 0.58 October 0.76 3,189 0.56

NO3−–N (μgL−1) NH4

+–N (μgL−1)

April 209.25 15,930 April 131.75 15,930

July 217.13 287,569 July 139.13 287,569

August 274.25 81,800 August 170.13 81,800

October 179.63 3,189 0.21 October 111.50 3,189 0.28

OPP (μgL−1) TP (μgL−1)

April 37.25 15,930 April 64.25 15,930

July 49.50 287,569 July 83.75 287,569

August 53.25 81,800 August 88.75 81,800

October 32.00 3,189 0.65 October 55.25 3,189 0.67


township of Pahalgam from locals and other tou-rists, and trail garbage all along the pilgrimageroute to Amarnath cave finally find their disposalin the main water body of Lidder River.

Monthly tourism data from 1997–2009 (Table 3)were correlated (Pearson and Lee 1896) with seasonalvariation in water quality parameters. Correlation be-tween tourism influx into the Lidder Valley and sea-sonal variation in water quality showed a positivetrend for all the water quality parameters except dis-solved oxygen (Table 4, Fig. 4), suggesting that

reckless tourist activities play a significant role in thealteration of water quality of Lidder. The highest valueof correlation coefficient was shown by chlorides(0.77) followed by orthophosphate phosphorus(0.65), while a negative correlation was shown bydissolved oxygen (ρ0−0.62).

Hence, accelerated flow of tourists from June toAugust causes deterioration in water quality ofLidder River. Due to the increase in the tourist inflow,there has been a significant impact on deterioratingwater quality of Lidder River. This is evidenced from

Fig. 4 Scatter diagram showing correlation between seasonal average of water quality parameters and tourist arrival in Lidder valley


the past data (Bhat and Yousuf 2003). Water qualityparameters especially dissolved oxygen, ammoniacalnitrogen, and total phosphorus are showing a changein their concentration when we compare 2003 WQdata with the 2007 observed data (Table 5).Dissolved oxygen showed a slight decrease by0.07 mgL−1, while ammoniacal nitrogen and totalphosphorus showed a significant increase by 120.7and 51.75 μgL−1, respectively. This could be attribut-ed to the increased tourist flow over the years (Fig. 3)in addition to the extensive agricultural and horticul-tural practices employed by the people in thecatchment.

Land use land cover

Knowledge of land use and land cover is important formany planning and management activities and is con-sidered an essential element for understanding theearth system (Lillesand et al. 2004). Using on-screendigitization, 13 land use land cover classes were de-lineated (Fig. 2, Table 6) based on shape, size, pattern,tone, texture, and association (Oslon 1960). Theseinclude bare rock, barren land, coniferous forest, crop-land, degraded forest, grassland, orchards, perennialsnow, plantation, scrub, settlements, water body, andwetland. This was followed by extensive ground ver-ification where a total of 202 ground samples weretaken. The overall accuracy of the delineated LULCmap was 93.56 % (Table 7), modified after incorpo-rating necessary field information. Coniferous forest(20.45 %) was the most dominant land cover typefollowed by scrub (15.33 %), perennial snow(14.43 %), degraded forest (12.65 %), bare rock(8.9 %), and cropland (8.74 %), while wetland(0.16 %) was the least dominant class as per the spatial

extents. Land use has a considerable role in affectingwater quality of streams (Horner et al. 1996). If catch-ment is covered with impervious surfaces, such asroads and parking facilities, the water quality ofstreams is seriously degraded. Agriculture as a non-point pollution source greatly affects water quality ofstreams due to use of pesticides and fertilizers whichafter degradation find their way into the streams di-rectly causing enrichment in the concentration of ni-trogen and phosphorus compounds, thereby affectingthe biota of stream (Botkin and Keller 2009). Peopleliving in the catchment of Lidder are shifting their landuse from agriculture to orchards owing to the decreasein discharge of Lidder due to changing climate.Moreover, apple orchards are economically more viableas compared to agriculture. The spatial extent of agri-culture has decreased from 120.27 km2 (Zaz andRomshoo 2008) in 1972 to 108.58 km2 in 2006. Thearea under orchards was 17.65 km2 in 1972 (Zaz andRomshoo 2008), while it is 73.03 km2 as of 2006showing more than a fourfold increase during the past34 years. A zoomed-in view showing change in land usefrom agriculture to orchards in Lidder valley from 1992to 2005 can be seen in Fig. 5. Though the area underagriculture has reduced considerably, the increased useof fertilizers over the years has led to the deterioration inthe water quality of Lidder especially in the lower plains

Table 6 Land use land cover statistics of Lidder Valley

Class name Area (km2) % age

Bare rock 110.86 8.90

Barren land 67.39 5.41

Coniferous forest 254.81 20.45

Cropland 108.86 8.74

Degraded forest 157.56 12.65

Grassland 43.77 3.51

Orchards 73.03 5.86

Plantation 32.17 2.58

Perennial snow 179.72 14.43

Scrub 190.94 15.33

Settlements 7.13 0.57

Water body 17.50 1.40

Wetland 1.98 0.16

Total area 1,245.73 100.00

Table 5 Change in physicochemical characteristics of waterfrom 2003 to 2007

Year 2003a 2007 ChangeParameter

Dissolved oxygen (mgL−1) 9.17 9.1 -0.07

Ammoniacal nitrogen (μgL−1) 17.42 138.13 +120.71

Total phosphorus (μgL−1) 21.25 73 +51.75

a Bhat and Yousuf 2003


of the catchment. During the period from 1980 to 1981,24.14 kg/ha of fertilizers were used (Anonymous 2008).Over the course of time, people started to extensivelyuse fertilizers to increase the crop productivity, and theapplication of fertilizers increased 44.21 kg/ha in 2002–2003. An all-time high rate of fertilizer application of97.03 kg/ha was used for 2007–2008 (Anonymous2008). The excessive use of fertilizers has a significant

impact on the deteriorating water quality of Lidderwaters in the low lying areas of the catchment espe-cially around site 7 (Aishmuqam) and site 8 (Mattan)where land use is dominated by agriculture. In manyareas of the Kashmir valley, economic factors anddecreasing stream flows are the driving forces for thechange of land use from water-intensive agricultureto orchards.

Table 7 Accuracy assessment of land use/land cover

Reference data

BR BL CL CF FP GL OF OR PS SF SE WA WE Row total

Classification data

BR 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8

BL 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 6

CF 0 0 44 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 47

CL 0 0 0 23 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 24

FP 0 0 0 0 13 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 14

GL 0 0 1 0 0 19 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 21

OF 1 0 0 0 0 0 12 0 0 1 0 0 0 14

OR 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 0 0 13

PS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 6

SF 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 27 0 0 0 28

SE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 8

WA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 6

WE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 7

Column Total 8 6 45 24 14 19 15 13 6 31 8 6 7 202

Producer’s accuracy User’s accuracy

BR0(7/8)×100087.50 % BR0(7/8)×100087.50 %

BL0(5/6)×100083.33 % BL0(5/6)×100083.33 %

CF0(44/45)×100097.77 % CF0(44/47)×100093.62 %

CL0(23/24)×100095.83 % CL0(23/24)×100095.83 %

FP0(13/14)×100092.86 % FP0(13/14)×100092.86 %

GL0(19/19)×1000100.00 % GL0(19/21)×100090.48 %

OF0(12/15)×100080.00 % OF0(12/14)×100085.71 %

OR0(12/13)×100092.31 % OR0(12/13)×100092.31 %

PS0(6/6)×1000100.00 % PS0(6/6)×1000100.00 %

SF0(27/31)×100087.1 % SF0(27/28)×100096.43 %

SE0(8/8)×1000100.00 % SE0(8/8)×1000100.00 %

WA0(6/6)×1000100.00 % WA0(6/6)×1000100.00 %

WE0(7/7)×1000100.00 % WE0(7/7)×1000100.00 %

Overall accuracy0[(7+5+44+23+13+19+12+12+6+27+8+6+7)/202]×100093.56 %

BR bare rock, BL barren land, CF coniferous forest, CL cropland, FP forest plantation, GL grassland, OF open forest, OR orchards, PSperennial snow, SF-scrub forest, SE settlements, WA water body, WE wetland


Conclusion

Various land use practices in the catchment of LidderRiver that has tremendous ecological and socioeco-nomic importance depict the way we are treating ourfresh water ecosystems. From the analysis and discus-sion of the results, it is concluded that the main rea-sons for the deterioration of the water quality of LidderRiver are increase in the nutrient and silt load from thecatchment due to reckless use of pesticides and fertil-izers, encroachment, and unplanned urbanization in thevicinity of the river. This fact has been substantiated bythe physicochemical characteristics of the river. Thephysicochemical analysis shows an increase of most ofthe water quality parameters particularly nitrate nitrogen,ammoniacal nitrogen, total phosphorus, orthophosphate

phosphorus, and BOD from April to August. Due to theincrease of these nutrients, the ecology of the river ischanging and adversely affecting the distribution ofaquatic flora and fauna therein. The direct discharge ofthe effluents and sewage from the surrounding areas intothe Lidder River has increased the nutrient loading in theLidder River. As a result of nutrient enrichment, a drop inthe oxygen content has been observed which has directbearing on abundance of aquatic fauna (like fishesespecially trout).

The waters of Lidder are simultaneously subjectedto multiple and competing uses. This serves domestic,agriculture, irrigation, and other commercial sectors(including hotels at Pahalgam) sectors, which have adirect bearing on the water quality of Lidder River. Itis inferred from the study that pollution load increased

Fig. 5 Land use change from agriculture to orchards in Lidder valley from 1992 to 2005


considerably (as depicted by concentration of variouswater quality determinants) in the months of July–August, which can be attributed to high tourist inflowduring these months as depicted by the correlationresults. So, the heavy tourist influx and agriculturalactivities in the Lidder Valley should be checked asper the carrying capacity of the valley so as to preservethe pristine water resource of Lidder, thereby ensuringits sustainability. As is evident from land use landcover map, agriculture and orchards are the dominantland uses in the plains of the valley. The agriculturalactivities are at maximum in the months of June andAugust releasing tremendous quantities of nitrogen andphosphorus into the Lidder River, thereby synergizingthe deterioration in quality of water caused by touristactivities in the same period. In addition, heavy sewageingress into Lidder waters, from hotels in Pahalgam,commercial places, and residential areas, is also respon-sible for the deteriorating water quality of Lidder River.Hence, there should be proper management and disposalof wastes from agricultural, domestic, and commercialsectors. It is suggested that an appropriate mechanism beestablished for continuous monitoring of the LidderRiver for its land cover, hydrochemistry, biodiversity,and hydrology so that a robust strategy and action planis developed for the conservation and restoration of thisimportant river.

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Mass Tourism and Water Quality in Lidder Valley, Kashmir

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