Jammu, April 6 -- A damning audit report has exposed the near-collapse of Jammu and Kashmir's lake conservation framework, revealing that 518 of the Union Territory's 697 recorded lakes have either vanished entirely or shrunk significantly - a crisis that auditors warn is accelerating climate vulnerability and flood risk across the region. The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), tabled in the J&K Legislative Assembly by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, found that the total lake area has declined by 2,851.26 hectares compared to the base year of 1967, based on data from the J&K Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing Department (EE&RSD). The assessment used 2014 as the reference year for the Kashmir division and 2020 for Jammu....