Lake Manchar: Which is neither fully alive nor dying!

Lake Manchar: Which is neither fully alive nor dying!

Sometimes I ask myself why almost all my writings are on settlements of desolation, ruin and misery. Why are they on the people who were thrown into the mill of poverty by the class system without any guilt.

I wonder why those mango trees are cut down for some form where for years and generations the parrots have been living in them, singing in their sweet language like honey and flying in the blue sky for their natural color. That nature left no stone unturned in bestowing its bounties on man.

What is the fault of this cactus forest in which thousands of butterflies build their nests from their weak ones and lay their eggs in the days of strong storms so that they can maintain the balance of nature. There are thousands of such pain conditions in the dense forests of which we live.

Every time this question arises in the depths of my heart and mind, I get the same answer that 'Serum Dukham Dukham' means life is suffering. But what is sorrow? When do we feel this pain? And it is still lying in wait when you are very happy. Everywhere you look today, the tide of protectionist sentiment is flowing. When the mother sleeps with a lullaby in the hot afternoons. The lullaby and the touch of mother's loving hands that you feel on your forehead filled with a world of love and peace. In fact, in the existence of this lullaby and this touch, there is a distant sorrow hidden. When this childhood will pass, when the law of nature will apply to the dense tree-like existence of the mother and this dense shade tree will be cut down, then that hot afternoon, the mother's lullaby and that touch of the hand will give you the last of life. He will keep crying till he hiccups, so sorrow is neither separate from happiness nor happiness is separate from sorrow.

When I left the guest house, the streets of Sehwan were crowded, but much less than usual. These were the early days of the Corona epidemic. We walked west from Dhamal Chowk. As you cross National Highway 55 and travel west, you see fields, but barren and desolate. There are some small settlements that you will see breathing on the mounds of mud. You can also call them settlements on the ancient banks of the Manchar. The land on both sides of the road seemed fertile at one time, which was inhabited by the waters of Manchar.

Settlements on the shores of the lake
But now there is a severe shortage of water in these lands and there is bean and sorghum, due to which the lands are deserted. A couple of small and backward villages came in our way and then came the long wall which is called 'Bobak Bandh'.

There was an endless stream of water in front of it, which was once called the 'Great Freshwater Lake of Asia'. It may still be large in terms of water but not in terms of fresh water because the ppm level of potable fresh water is 700 to 1000 and for agriculture it can work even if it is 1500 ppm. Is. But now the lake water is full of bitterness instead of sweetness. The average water level is 3,500 ppm and in summer or before the rains it exceeds 4,000 ppm.

Manchar Lake * Abu Bakar Sheikh
The boat we were supposed to take to the lake had not yet arrived, so we waited on the shore. I was accompanied by Mustafa Mirani, who hails from the same area but now lives in Jamshoro.

I asked him about the past days, what is the difference between one manchar that he saw and one manchar that his elders saw?

"There is no sign of the past in the manchhar you are looking at now. We are most annoyed to see this lake in this condition because the place where you get your livelihood is respected. We fishermen have the greatest respect for the water and the boat that floats on its surface, because they both give us life in the form of food. The lake, which covers an area of ​​250 square kilometers, used to be a universe on its surface. There were more than 600 boats floating on the lake.