 "Conservationist Anand Arya")
Consider the following statistics. India is the world’s largest user of groundwater. Ninety per cent of our population depends on groundwater for drinking, while an estimated 80 per cent of agricultural land is irrigated with groundwater.
Many believe that protecting the country’s plentiful wetlands — areas that remain underwater either permanently or for a few months in a year, could ensure effective recharging of its groundwater reserves and secure our future vis-à-vis water needs.
Yet, in spite of the fact that wetlands across India have been mapped with the help of satellites, located on state-wise atlases and protected under the Wetlands (Conservation
