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.
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.
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.
“For effective conservation and management of wetlands in the country, MoEFCC had notified the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, superseding the 2010 Rules with decentralisation of powers in view of the fact that “Water and Land” are subjects which come under the purview of the State List,” the ministry said in its response.
Centre issued the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules 2017 which apply only to wetlands categorised as “wetlands of international importance” under the Ramsar Convention; and wetlands as notified by the Central Government, State Government and Union Territory Administration.
Hence, these rules currently apply to only 102 wetlands and 89 Ramsar sites.
“Wetlands are mostly a common resource in India depending on their location and jurisdiction. While the wetlands falling in protected areas etc, have restricted access, those under private ownership may not have public access. One key component of the wetland notification is the “account of pre-existing rights and privileges”, which guides the rights of the communities to access and use wetland after its notification,” it said.
The governments in Rajasthan and Goa have been proactive in notifying the wetlands, the ministry’s response said.
Wetlands are also carbon sinks and provide critical support to local communities in extreme heat, act as buffers against drought and floods, and support a huge diversity of migratory and local birds. High-altitude wetlands provide baseflows for many rivers and act as buffers for glacial melts. Some wetlands, including coral reefs, mangroves and wetlands found in tropical forests are at a great risk from climate crisis. .
Amid slow progress in notification of wetlands by the states, the Supreme Court has stepped in. Anand Arya, a Noida-based birder, challenged the 2017 wetland rules in the top court in 2018 in a bid to protect the Dhanauri wetlands in Greater Noida from conversion into a real estate project.
“Wetlands are real estate to many and that is probably why states have not been proactive. The total failure of state and bureaucracy in notifying wetlands and thus protecting and conserving is nothing but complete dereliction of legal and statutory duty. This situation needs correction by building punitive measures under wetland rules or under contempt of court provisions,” Arya told HT.
The case led to a landmark order in December 2024, when the SC directed state wetland authorities to complete ground truthing and demarcation of boundaries of wetlands identified for State by Space Application Center Atlas (SAC Atlas), 2021.
For easy accessibility of this, the court said each of the state wetland authorities must complete this work as expeditiously as possible, but within a period of three months from the date of the order. However, so far, only Manipur has completed the work of demarcation of 30 wetlands and the work on remaining 97 was scheduled to be completed by March 7, an affidavit by the state government showed.
“The greatest threat to wetlands lies in their conversion for alternate land use. This is often underpinned by market distortions that undervalue the role of wetland ecosystems and provide perverse incentives and subsidies to favour their conversion to alternate land use. Those who benefit from wetlands conservation often do not pay the cost associated with conservation,” the ministry acknowledged in its Wetland Wise Use report.
The 2017 Rules state that wetlands shall be conserved and managed in accordance with the principle of “wise use” as determined by the Wetlands Authority.
The rules also listed activities like conversion for non-wetland uses; setting up of industry and expansion of existing industries; disposal of construction and demolition waste; poaching; discharge of effluents among others, which are prohibited in notified wetlands.
In 2017, when the new rules were notified, environmentalists and legal experts raised concerns that the rules were a much-diluted version which would make protection of wetlands even more difficult.
While the 2010 guidelines clearly categorised what is completely restricted and what is regulated, the new rules used vague terminologies such as “wise use” of wetlands raising ambiguity about what activities are permitted and they delegated much of the responsibility of identification and notification of wetlands to the states and UTs.
The rules also allowed prohibited activities under exceptional circumstances with the prior approval of the Centre. They also failed to mention how communities or people could take up conservation of wetlands.
Last year, about seven years after the rules were issued, the ministry released its “Wetland Wise Use” framework for implementation of the rules.
Despite the centrality of the wise-use concept, the term remains vague and its application in wetland management, the document acknowledged.
The wetland wise use concept focuses on ecological character; ecosystem approach and sustainable development. Ecosystem components and processes enable the wetland to provide ecosystem services.
For example, wetland fisheries are supported by the ability of the ecosystem to serve as habitats for fish and human enterprise in terms of boats, nets, indigenous knowledge related to fishing, etc or support a diverse bird population. Wise use also recognises that management of wetlands should be decentralised. It also states that management should consider the views, values, and interests of local communities and other indigenous people, identifying them as essential stakeholders.
The reporter is a recipient of Promise of Commons Media Fellowship, on the significance of Commons and its community stewardship
The reporter is a recipient of Promise of Commons Media Fellowship, on the significance of Commons and its community stewardship