When we were in school in the seventies Lucknow had many water bodies and wetlands. The entire area of what is Gomtinagar today had innumerable ponds, swamps and marshes. Today they all have disappeared except one or two. There are around 23 wetlands in and around Lucknow out of which Nawabganj bird sanctuary and Ekana wetland are protected sites while others are unprotected areas. These wetlands cover an area of approx.4200 hectare and are important waterfowl habitats of Lucknow. In the seventies we could get water at 30 feet in Mahanagar but today we have to go down to 300 feet for the water table. Wetlands are threatened all over the country and Lucknow is no exception.
What are wetlands?
Wetlands are areas that are inundated with water permanently or seasonally. They occur where water meets land. They are areas of marsh, fen, peat land or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which, at low tides, does not exceed six meters. The wetlands may include riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six meters at low tide lying within the wetlands.
The biological composition of wetlands, from the fish that live there to the migrating water-birds that visit, depends on the ways water moves within a wetland. Wetlands include mangroves, peat lands and marshes, lakes, deltas, floodplains and flooded forests, rice-fields, and even coral reefs. Wetlands exist in every country and in every climatic zone, from the polar regions to the tropics, and from high altitudes to dry regions. They are classified as high altitude (with low temperature and ice formation), brackish (partly saline) and freshwater with specific ecologies. Rivers are not considered as wetland as their ecology is different.
India has a diversity of wetlands ranging from the floodplains of rivers like Ganga and Brahmaputra to the high altitude wetlands of the Himalayas, lagoons and mangrove marshes on the coastline and reefs in marine environments, among others. Reservoirs, lakes, ponds, canals, marshes, estuaries, creeks, tanks, minor irrigation tanks, temple tanks, open wells, were all part of it. They could be a mixture of natural, semi-natural, and man-made bodies.
Why are wetlands important?
Wetlands ecosystems are vital parts of hydro-logical cycle, highly productive, support rich biodiversity and provide a wide range of ecosystem services such as water storage, water purification, flood mitigation, storm buffers, erosion control, aquifer recharge, micro-climate regulation, aesthetic enhancement of landscapes while simultaneously supporting many significant recreational, social and cultural activities.
Several people depend on wetlands for their livelihood as well as for food and water. They not only provide water for humans and cattle but also meet local irrigation needs. Some wetlands also play a role in combating the impacts of climate change like floods and extreme weather events. Wetlands are also among the earth’s top carbon stores and their conservation can help in reducing carbon emissions. Wetlands play important roles such as protecting water quality; moderating the impact of flooding; providing storage for carbon, which helps reduce the impact of climate change.
Wetlands play a key role in the hydro-logical cycle and flood control, water supply. More importantly, they recharge the groundwater and ensure the availability of water in dry season. These are the areas that keep the terrain moist and wet. They reduce the impact of water during floods and provide water during dry periods, both of which are a familiar story in many parts of India today. Wetlands thus play an essential role in climate change adaptation, as they can increase a region’s ability to deal with extreme weather events. They also provide habitat for large number of biota, both plants and animals including both local and migrating water-birds.
Wetlands also provide an ecosystem that prevent land degradation and desertification. Mangroves protect coastlines and filter pollutants. That's why wetland are referred to as kidneys of the ecosystem. Wetlands also support millions of migratory birds from colder regions of the world in summers. They also have significant cultural, social, food and spiritual value for Indigenous Peoples.
Ramsar Convention
Ramsar Convention is a convention on wetlands that was signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The negotiations for the convention started in the 1960s by the different countries and NGOs for the protection of wetlands and their resources. Finally, it came into force in 1975. By October 2020, there were 171 contracting parties to the Ramsar Convention. By June 2021, there were 2422 wetlands in the list of wetlands of international importance the world over. In India, which is a party to this convention, currently, 75 wetlands, with a surface area of over a million hectares are designated as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. A total of 231,195 wetlands have been mapped in the country. The total wetland area estimated is 15.26 million hectares that is around 4.63 percent of the geographical area of our country. India's prominent wetlands include Chilika lake areas (Odisha), Wular lake (J&K), Renuka (Himachal Pradesh), Sambhar Lake (Rajasthan), Deepor Beel (Assam) etc.
Ramsar Convention is actually an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. Ramsar listing has no legal sanction under any Indian law and while it is a matter of prestige for a wetland to be listed, the listing does not, ipso facto, help in its protection for restoration. Then again 75 out of a total of 231,195 wetlands being in the Ramsar listing is a minuscule number.
Why are wetlands threatened?
The world has lost around 87 percent of natural wetlands since the 1700s and 35 percent have disappeared since the 1970s. India has lost nearly one-third of her natural wetlands to urbanization, agricultural expansion and pollution over the last four decades. It is estimated that wetlands are vanishing three times faster than forests and their rate of disappearance is increasing.
Wetlands are threatened by reclamation and degradation through drainage and landfill, pollution (discharge of domestic and industrial effluents, disposal of solid wastes), hydrological alteration (water withdrawal and changes in inflow and outflow), over-exploitation of natural resources resulting in loss of biodiversity and disruption in ecosystem services provided by wetlands.
What are we doing to protect wetlands?
A brief and correct answer would be ‘very little’. While there are some remarkable stories of wetland protection by individuals and self help groups the government has woken up to the problem of disappearing wetlands rather late.
All over the country there are stories of individuals and communities protecting their local wetlands – a father-daughter duo cleaning up Dal lake in Kashmir, an old man in a village in Karnataka digging ponds for wild animals, citizens in Mumbai and Noida protecting their urban wetlands from construction activities and a women’s group in a coastal Maharashtra district protecting their mangroves through ecotourism initiatives. For most of these people, it is passion that drives their individual initiatives and they are examples of what common citizens can do to protect these ecosystems.
The central government provides assistance to state governments for implementation of management plans for prioritized wetlands. The National Wetlands Conservation Programme has been in operation since 1986. Since 2013, the programme is known as National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems.
National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA) is a single conservation programme for both wetlands and lakes. It is a centrally sponsored scheme, currently being implemented by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). It was formulated in 2015 by merging of the National Lake Conservation Plan and the National Wetlands Conservation Programme. Today the Ministry of Jal Shakti operates a scheme for Repair, Renovation and Restoration of Water Bodies.
Plan for future
We should first notify all the remaining wetlands which are not listed under Ramsar convention under the Wetland Rules 2017, created under Environment Protection Act,1986 and prepare a plan to manage them and implement them with missionary zeal. All existing wetlands should be made out of bounds from land grabbers and punitive action for violation of the rules should be exemplary.
Urbanization must be planned taking existing wetlands into consideration. Not only the wetland itself but its flood planes or catchment areas too should be protected as wetlands are not static but dynamic and they expand in monsoons. Ecological restoration practices cannot be compromised any further in the name of urbanization.
A very important topic which is barely understood or talked about in academic or social circles. Very well explained, I hope India should have big chapter on this topic in school textbooks under environmental sciences. This education should start from grade 6.
ReplyDeleteDharmaraj. U.S.A.