Protecting India's wetlands

New body for this ecologically vital area is just the beginning

By setting up a Centre for Wetlands Conservation and Management in Chennai on the 50th anniversary of the United Nations-brokered Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the government seems to have restated its commitment to preserve the biodiversity-rich ecosystems like swamps, marshes, peatlands, coastal lagoons, mangroves, and others. But it would have to walk the talk with result-oriented policies and measures to protect and rejuvenate wetlands. At present, most of the country’s wetlands, cumulatively occupying about 15.26 million hectares, or 4.6 per cent of the land, are in pathetic condition and need urgent intervention to stop further degradation. They face constant threat from encroachers to reclaim land for realty projects, agriculture, industry, and other commercial activities. Inflows of untreated urban and industrial wastes and run-off from crop fields containing fertilisers and pesticides residues are also polluting the wetlands, marring their biological health.

All this reflects poorly on India’s past record in safeguarding these ecologically vital semi-aquatic ecosystems despite being a signatory to the Wetlands Convention adopted by about 100 countries in Ramsar town, Iran, in February 1971. The National Wetlands Conservation Programme, initiated in 1985, which envisaged Central financial assistance for the protection of 115 wetlands in various states, did not make much headway. The rules framed by the Centre for the upkeep of the wetlands in 2010, as also their revised version of 2016, have remained, by and large, unenforced. Many states have not cared to notify the wetlands in need of preservation despite the National Green Tribunal’s decree to do so in a time-bound manner. No wonder, nearly one-third of India’s wetlands are believed to have vanished or got severely degraded in the past four decades.

Preservation of wetlands is deemed imperative as these are the repositories of precious biodiversity. Numerous rare species of aquatic animals, birds, including migratory birds, and plants thrive there. Many herbs of great value to the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries are now found only in the protected wetlands. They constitute the mainstay of livelihood of tribal and other communities living around them, besides nurturing recreation and tourism ventures. More importantly, wetlands contribute to mitigating global warming and climate change by serving as the carbon sinks.

The proposed wetland management centre, which would function under the Chennai-based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, is mandated to help the Union and state governments in evolving policies regarding regulating, conserving, and managing the wetlands. Besides, it is tasked to provide the needed research and development (R&D) backup for the all-round management of wetlands. The success of this new organisation would, thus, depend on how deftly it can prevail upon the state governments to put an end to the ongoing plunder of vital wetlands. Its other task of rejuvenating the degraded wetlands is, in some respects, harder than that of cleaning the country’s major rivers like the Ganga and the Yamuna. For, the ecosystems that wetlands harbour are far more sensitive and fragile than those of rivers and other natural water streams. Besides, they do not enjoy the advantage of flowing water, which normally washes away the pollutants and infuses fresh life into the system. These semi-aquatic stretches of land need specialised, site-specific, and science-based strategies for their conservation, which the mooted wetlands management centre would need to muster.