Srinagar : For years men and machines have toiled to clean up Kashmir's mirror-calm Dal Lake to remove choking weeds, lily pads and other water plants that have tarnished the image of the famed tourist attraction.Now scientists in the Indian Himalayan region have hit upon a new low cost idea - flood the lake with thousands of weed-eating Chinese grass carp.

"We are starting it as an experiment, but we believe this could be the solution we have been looking for," said Moulvi Manzoor, deputy Director of Jammu and Kashmir state's fisheries department.

A small number of the Chinese fish, which only eat water plants, had been released in pens at a few places in the lake in tests, he said. The grass carp is a voracious herbivore and an adult fish can grow upto 66 pounds. 'It will be able to control the growth of weeds, but the plants won't completely vanish from the whole lake," Manzoor said.

The lake, which once covered 12 square miles, has shrunk to half that size over the past four decades because of silt, weeds and development. Many areas on the periphery have been reclaimed and converted into floating gardens. The lake, located in the heart of Srinagar, has more than 1,500 timber houseboats that are popular with tourists. Despite the violence, thousands have traveled to Kashmir this year as regional peace moves have gathered pace and Dal Lake is always a popular destination.