So far 64 Indian wetlands covering an area of 12,50,361 hectares have been designated as Ramsar Sites of International Importance – the 10 new sites accounting for 1,51,842.41 hectares.
India has added 10 more wetlands to the list of Ramsar designated sites. With this, India has a total of 64 Ramsar sites covering an area of 12,50,361 hectares in the country. Six of these 10 new sites are in Tamil Nadu and one each in Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Designation of wetland ecosystems as Ramsar sites will help in conservation and management of wetlands and wise use of their resources.
India has the highest area of wetlands designated as Ramsar sites in SouthAsia.
The new sites were designated as Ramsar sites between November 2021 and June this year.
The inclusion of wetlands among Ramsar sites aims to target conservation efforts through wise use and management in order to halt the loss of wetlands with international cooperation, policy making, capacity building and technology transfer.
India is one of the Contracting Parties to Ramsar Convention, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971. So far 64 Indian wetlands covering an area of 12,50,361 hectares have been designated as Ramsar Sites of International Importance – the 10 new sites accounting for 1,51,842.41 hectares.
Ramsar sites
Ramsar sites are wetlands like lakes, floodplains, swamps and marshes and are designated so due to their important role in their ecosystem. They need to meet at least one of a set of nine criteria set by the Ramsar Convention. The Ramsar Convention also links wetlands to community action and to this end, it says that Ramsar sites need not be natural, as in the case of Madhya Pradesh’s Madhav National Park.
Image: Wikimedia – The Satkosia Gorge in Odisha, now declared a Ramsar site.
