Few wetlands impacted due to urbanisation, developmental activities:Govt

Javadekar said under NWCP, 115 wetlands in 24 states and two UTs have been identified for conservation and management

A few wetlands in the country have reportedly been impacted due to various developmental activities and urbanisation, the government said today.

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar in a written reply in Rajya Sabha said that for conservation and management of wetlands, the centrally sponsored scheme - National Wetland Conservation Programme (NWCP) was implemented till 2012-13.

However, to have a better synergy and to avoid overlap the NWCP has been merged with another scheme National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA) for holistic conservation of lakes and wetlands, he said.

"A few wetlands in the country have reportedly been impacted due to various developmental activities, rapid urbanisation, pollution problems and other anthropogenic pressures," Javadekar said.

He said that under NWCP, 115 wetlands in 24 states and two UTs have been identified for conservation and management.

"So far an amount of Rs 133.64 crore has been released to the concerned states for undertaking various conservation activities," he said.

Javadekar said that to regulate certain activities within the identified wetlands, the government has notified the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules in December 2010.

Replying to another question, he said that at the behest of his ministry, the Space Applications Centre (SAC) Ahmedabad has prepared a National Wetland Inventory Atlas on 1:50,000 scale using Indian Remote Sensing Satellite III data of pre- and post-monsoon seasons during 2006-11.

"As per the atlas, there are a total of 7,57,060 wetlands covering an estimated area of 15.26 million hectare, that is around 4.63 per cent of the geographic area of the country," Javadekar said.