Demarcate and protect wetlands, SC tells states

The court's directions

- Jayashree Nandi and Abraham Thomas

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the protection of around 30,000 more wetlands over the 201,503 protected by a 2017 order, and, more importantly, asked states and Union territories to ensure their demarcation and ground truthing within three months—a significant step in the protection of habitats usually ignored by governments.

To be sure, the court order covers only wetlands that are more than 2.25 hectares in size.

The number of wetlands is based on satellite data from SAC-ISRO, which is why it needs to be ground-truthed.

The bench was hearing a PIL by Anand Arya, a Greater Noida-based birder and environmentalist, advocate MK Balakrishnan and NGO Vanashakti. The next date in the matter has been kept for March 25, 2025.

The bench, comprising justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, further directed suo motu monitoring of 85 Ramsar sites. In April 2017, the top court passed a direction asking high courts where 59 Ramsar sites were identified to initiate suo motu proceedings to conserve these water bodies. The petitioners urged the court that an additional 26 sites also need to be monitored. These sites fell under the monitoring of the high courts at Patna, Bombay (Bombay and Goa bench), Karnataka, Gauhati (Aizawl bench), and Uttarakhand.