Only 102 of over 200k wetlands notified in country: Data

Of the country's estimated over 200,000 wetlands, only 102 have been notified and even these are concentrated in three states and one Union territory, data from the environment ministry has revealed.

- Jayashree Nandi

NEW DELHI:

While Rajasthan has notified 75 wetlands and Goa 25, both Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh have notified one each, the ministry's data, shared in response to an RTI and available on ministry's Wetlands of India Portal, showed.

The lack of protection for wetlands, a "common" resource in India which are biodiversity hotspots under extreme threat from climate crisis, perhaps stems from the resource being a state subject, the ministry said separately in response to queries seeking details on the ownership of the resource.

Wetlands comprise approximately 4.8% of the total geographical area of the country; and 6% of the world's surface at the global level.

At least 6% of India's population relies directly on wetlands for their livelihood, according to the Wetlands For LIFE report of the environment ministry released last month.

Last year, the environment ministry filed an affidavit in the top court in the Anand Arya Vs Union of India, giving details of the notified wetlands. It said that only 92 of the 231,195 wetlands, an estimate of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in 2021, have legal protection. The remaining 10 were notified after November 2024.

Managing a critical resource Wetlands are areas where water is the primary factor controlling the environment and the associated plant and animal life as per the Ramsar Convention. They range from village ponds, marshes, peat lands, estuaries, swamps to lakes, backwaters, rivers and streams.

Further, in response to HT's queries on why notified wetlands remained concentrated in three states and one UT, the ministry said that water and land are state subjects, and it is the discretion of the state governments to notify them. The ministry cited the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, under which wetland authorities were constituted at the state level, and the powers to notify wetlands delegated to state governments.