“Biodiversity is essential for existence of mankind” said renowned expert E.O. Wilson on Biodiversity conservation. He went on to say that “Man ignores the visible god (nature) and tries to worship the invisible god!” While rapid advances are being made in Science including AI, nature and biodiversity are neglected and destroyed by human beings. The international community will celebrate World Wetlands Day on 2 February 2023 to raise awareness about wetlands to reverse their rapid loss and encourage actions to conserve and restore them. It is also to remind the humanity of their importance and urgent need to protect, restore and conserve them for posterity.
We are aware that water is present over 75% of earth’s surface in marine and aquatic ecosystems. A wetland is a type of ecosystem that is either partially or completely filled with water for most of the year and can be either human-made or naturally occurring. There are four main types of wetlands: marshes, bogs, fens, and swamps.
Wetlands are very rich in Biodiversity and they harbour species from terrestrial and aquaticsystems and hence crucial for maintaining the ecological balance. Water is the elixir of life and biodiversity thrives only where water is available. Conservation of wetlands is essential for Conservation of Biodiversity and the variety of ecosystem services they render to humanity.
Wetlands are categorised as unique ecosystems with many-sided roles and functions in nature. They stabilize the flood waters and prevent inundation of coastal areas. Their sediments are rich repositories of minerals and nutrients and hence support agriculture and aquaculture. They are natural barriers to waves and winds and protect the coastal areas from natural calamities like cyclones. They are home for variety of life forms ranging from Higher vertebrates to microbes. Avifauna depends largely on wetlands for their survival. They are the breeding grounds for a variety of fish, prawn and shrimps etc.,
India is one of the 12 megadiverse countries in the world endowed with about 8.1% of total species identified so far with only 2.4 % of the land mass. There is a variety of ecosystems each occupying a specific location depending on the latitude and longitude of the location they are present. There is a large number of wetlands in India occupying about 1,52,600 Square Kilometres comprising 4.63% of the geographical area as per the assessment made by the ISRO. Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh occupy the first three places in extent of area under wetlands. Some of the important wetlands are notified as Ramsar Sites following the International convention held in 1971 in Ramsar, a City in Iran.
It is worthwhile to recognise the importance our Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi gave to wetlands during his recent “Man Ki Bath” to the nation. He reiterated the importance of wetlands and the role played by them in conservation of biodiversity especially the marine and aquatic biodiversity. He appreciated the rapid strides made by different states and the people living in and around the wetlands intheir conservation and the efforts made by India are attracting the attentionof International community.Hesaid that the rich traditions and culture of the country teach us to protect and preserve the wetlands and the role of wetlands in mitigating ill effects of climate change and its impact on biodiversity. He specifically mentioned that wetlands play very significant role in flood control and maintaining the agriculture productivity. He took reference to Chilka lake. The kaibul,Lamjam and Loktakwetlands in northeast of India is the only natural habitat of endangered swamp deer. He mentioned that it is matter of pride for the country that the number of Ramsar sites which was just 26 in 2014 has increased to 75 now with vedthangalin Tamilnadunotified as a Ramsar site in 2022. He desired that the entire country to celebrate the World Wetlandsday.
Andhra Pradesh has a lot of wetlands with important ones being Kolleru Sanctuary (fresh water) and Pulicot Sanctuary ( brackish water) and mangrove swamps of erstwhile East Godavari (Coringa sanctuary) and Krishna ( Krishna Sanctuary) Districts. There are many man made and natural wetlands of different sizes in different districts which are very important ecologically. There is Andhra Pradesh State Wetlands Authority constituted in 2019 to take policy decisions and conservation measures with Forest Minister as its Chairperson.
Telangana has a string of fresh water wetlands both natural and manmade. They are present in all the Districts and important ones are located in erstwhile Nalgonda (Nagarajunasagar) Karimnagar (Maneir), and Adilabad (Kadem) are a few to mention. Many of the irrigation projects are also developed as manmade wetlands. In addition, there are hundreds of small to medium sized wetlands supporting rich biodiversity and avifauna especially.
As per the Biological diversity Act 2002, it is the responsibility of the local bodies to take care of the Biodiversity in their local bodies and the local people have to be the partners in it. Andhra Pradesh State Biodiversity Board has constituted the Biodiversity management Committees (BMCs) in all the local bodies including the wetlands areas and People’s Biodiversity Registers(PBRs) were prepared documenting all the variety of life forms occurring in their local bodies.
While wetlands are very important ecologically as elaborated, their existence is threatened by many anthopogenic factors like encroachment, illegal farming of fish, prawn and shrimp, release of harmful effluents often untreated form the industries, indiscriminate use of insecticide, pesticides like synthetic pyrethroids, and inorganic fertilizers and more importantly the plastic wastes. The agencies responsible for regulation of activities in wetlands namely forests, industries, agriculture, fisheries and pollution control have to work in harmony to maintain ecological balance in wetland ecosystems. Massive awareness and education and citizen science programmes are essential to make the people partners in the conservation of wetland ecosystems for posterity. Industrialists, farmers, self-help groups, students apart from functionaries of local bodies have to be sensitized and educated to protect, preserve and restore the wetlands for harnessing their ecosystem services continuously.
Author is a retired officer of Indian Forest Service who worked as Principal Chief Conservator of forests, Chief Wildlife Warden and Member Secretary of Andhra Pradesh State Biodiversity Board.
