The Dagwan Nallah, Dachigam National Park

Every pic has a story and it's upto us how we tell it.

This little piece of engineering diverts some of the water from the Dagwan Nallah / River into the Sarband Lake, that traditionally was used to supply drinking water to Srinagar city. This system was set up way back in 1906. And for many years the water was just supplied raw so pristine was the water.

The Dagwan Nallah originates from the high altitude Marsar Lake which relies on the snow melt of the Peaks of the Kolahoi group at the base of which it lies. The Kolahoi itself the highest peak of the Valley.

The Marsar Lake itself lies in the Upper part of the Dachigam National Park and the Dagwan flows down through it, in an area devoid of all human inhabitation, through the magical forests of Dachigam until it reaches this point from where a part of its water gets diverted to the Sarband.

The Dagwan itself finally gets amalgamated into the Jehlum into the journey south.

Coming back to the pic and this piece of engineering thanks to which at one time the whole of Srinagar used to enjoy the purest natural water coming down right from the laps of the Himalayas from snow melts since of them above 5000 m and then further enriched by the primeval forest around it.

Thankfully even today most humans are kept away as you can only enter Dachigam after getting special permissions from the Regional Wildlife Warden.

Pic from April 2017. Dachigam National Park, Kashmir