The famous trout nullah in Ganderbal bordering the state capital has turned into a drain with encroachments despoiling what was once a pristine clear water body in which shikaras would float. Today, this stream is gravely damaged. A resident, Altaf Ahmed, TOI spoke to, said the trout nullah got its name from the variety of exotic fish found in it. “But unchecked construction of homes by the rivulet reduced it to a sewage drain,” Ahmed said. Eighty-year-old resident Ghulam Hassan Bhat fondly reminisces of days when the trout nullah invariably brought a variety of Himalayan fish. Sundays were meant for people to sail on their shikharas. “It’s the greed of people that has destroyed this rivulet,” he lamented. With the administration grappling with insurgency, basic issues of hygiene and maintenance of public spaces has suffered. “What can you expect with the weekly ritual of strikes and protests and the mindless cycle of violence?” asked a government official. Deputy commissioner of Ganderbal, Piyush Singla, held militancy responsible for the scant regard people have for the law. It’s this, he said, that has turned the rivulet into a dumping ground for garbage, suggesting that the people have no respect for the law. Singla said that the administration would start cleaning the stream under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on October 2. Having instructed revenue officials to remove encroachments that came up over the last one decade, he said a demolition drive would be carried out once illegal structures were identified. “We will get this nallah cleaned up so that the fisheries department is able to cultivate trout fish again in the stream which flows through the main Ganderbal town,” Singla said. He added that the three departments of irrigation and flood, municipal committee and fisheries would be tasked with the responsibility to revive and maintain the nallah. The cultivation of trout in the stream was disrupted due to encroachments by residents that turned the stream into a dumping ground and led to fish disappearing, said M Bazaz, deputy director of fisheries department. As soon as the district administration completes the restoration of the stream, our department will start cultivating trout fish again,” Bazaz said.