Srinagar, July 26 -- Forty-year-old Shakeel Ahmad had never seen the natural spring near his house in Lar Ganderbal this pristine - until last year. For decades, it used to be littered with garbage and animals used to loiter around. But all that changed once Nigeen Lake Conservation Organisation (NLCO), an environment group working to revive Kashmir's dying springs and water bodies, came into the picture. With slow and sustained efforts, the group managed to bring back to life at least 14 springs that had been lost to neglect, encroachment and urbanisation. Volunteers and, in some cases, the Srinagar municipal corporation (SMC) and Lakes Conservation Management Authority (LCMA), pitched in too. "The water here is so clean now that we use it for drinking and irrigation," says Ahmad, who is a teacher. He revealed that some 100 households in three villages depend on this spring for their daily needs. NLCO had started spring restoration in the Valley in 2022. Before this, it had cleaned two dying lakes in Srinagar - Khushal Sar and Gilsar, situated between Hawal and Zadibal in Old City, in 2021. These had turned into cesspools, owing to the official neglect and encroachments during militancy years. On their latest mission, NLCO chairperson Manzoor Wangnoo says, "There are thousands of springs which are choked with trash, polythene, animal carcasses and silt. Everybody has to get up and act. We are trying to restore some. Our efforts are bringing results." He said his group has restored nine springs in Srinagar, four in central Kashmir's Ganderbal and one in south Kashmir's Bijbehara. "For the last three to four decades, the springs had been turned into dustbins. We have been hiring labourers to clean the springs," he explains. Wangnoo reveals that they have been getting calls from multiple villages. "But we have limited resources. We are a seven-member team and have some volunteers," he says, adding that people and governments must realise their duty too. "Our survival depends on the survival of these water bodies." The group has also restored a spring on a hill in Bhadergund Ganderbal and one on the premises of a temple in Sazgari Pora in Srinagar, much to the delight of temple-goers. Shabir Ahamd Thikri, a resident of Bhadergund Ganderbal, said the spring has turned into a lifeline for 40 houses of the tribal community living there. "The reason for our success is that we don't take any money from the government. Besides our own efforts, all our funding comes locally from well-wishers and environment lovers," says Wangnoo, who is now called by some as the 'green ambassador' or 'waterman of Kashmir'....