Wetland Degradation

Key Highlights from the Wetland Degradation Report

• Wetland degradation: According to the estimates, India has lost nearly two of five wetlands in the last 30 years, while 40% of them can’t support aquatic animals.
• Major causes of degradation:
  • Unplanned urbanization: Vadodara lost 30% of its wetlands between 2005 and 2018, while Hyderabad has lost 55% of its semi-aquatic bodies due to inefficient waste management and unchecked urban development.
  • Erosion: The largest wetland in India, the Sunderbans has lost around 25% of its mangroves due to erosion over the past three decades. One of the main culprits for this is reduction in sediments due to upstream dams.
  • Waste disposal: Due to lack of knowledge on wetlands and their ecosystem, most wetlands end up being abused as sites of waste disposal, resulting in their widespread loss.
  • Reclamation: Reclamation activities have caused massive declines in coastal wetland areas. With the increasing human activities, the coastal wetland ecosystems were destroyed or replaced by a drained and impervious surface.
• Impacts of Degradation:
  • Flood vulnerability: Degeneration of urban wetlands due to unplanned development compromises the landscape’s resilience to floods. For example, 2015 Chennai floods.
• Current scenario of protection: India presently has around 2.2 lakh big wetlands covering over 2.2 hectares and 5.5 lakh smaller ones.
  • Of these, nearly 60,000 big wetlands are situated inside protected forest areas which could be deemed as safe.
  • Of the remaining, conservation work has been carried out on 150 to 200 water bodies so far.
  • A total of 75 Indian wetlands with a surface area of over a million hectares are designated as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

About Wetlands International

• It is an independent, not-for-profit, global organization that works to sustain and restore wetlands and their resources for people and biodiversity.
• It was founded in 1937 and was formerly known as International Waterfowl & Wetlands Research Bureau (IWRB).
• Headquarters: Ede, Netherlands
• It coordinates the International Waterbird census of which the Asian Waterbird census is an integral part.
• Also, it is one of the International Partner Organizations of the Ramsar Convention.

What are Wetlands?

• Wetlands are defined as: “lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic eco-systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water”.
• Types of Wetlands:
  • Marshes: These are wetlands that are permanently flooded or flooded during high water periods at the edges of rivers, streams, lakes, or ponds.
  • Sedge meadows (or wet meadows): These are wetlands with permanently or near-permanently saturated soils. They may form a transitional zone between marshes and other wetlands with less-saturated soils, or around groundwater discharge zones.
  • Fens and seeps: These are wetlands that are fed by groundwater that “seeps” out to the soil’s surface.
  • Bogs: These are basin wetlands for which precipitation is the only source of water; they are typically not fed by surfacing groundwater or streams.
  • Swamps: These are wetlands dominated by woody vegetation that typically have standing water during at least certain times of the year.
• Ecosystem services provided by wetlands:

• Efforts Towards Wetland Conservation:

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