NEW DELHI, Jan 08
In order to conserve wetlands across the country, the Centre has notified new rules that prohibit setting up or expansion of industries, and disposal of construction and demolition waste within the wetlands.
The rules, notified on January 6, provide for setting up an authority in each state and Union Territory. The authority will prepare a list of all wetlands of the state or UT within three months and make strategies for conservation and wise use of wetlands within their jurisdiction.
“It (authority) shall recommend mechanisms for maintenance of ecological character through promotional activities for land within the boundary of notified wetlands,” said the notification, issued by the Union environment ministry.
The authority will include one expert each in the fields of wetland ecology, hydrology, fisheries, landscape planning and socio-economics. The experts will be nominated by the state government.
The BJP on Wednesday lost the Zilla Parishad seat in Union minister Nitin Gadkari's native village Dhapewada in Nagpur district, an election official said. Congress candidate Mahendra Dongre won the Dhapewada seat in election held on Tuesday defeating BJP nominee Maruti Somkuvar. Dongre secured 9,444 votes, while Somkuvar received 5,501 votes.
The wetlands are land areas covered by water, either temporarily\seasonally or permanently. Marsh, fen and peatland come under this category. The wetlands play a key role in hydrological cycle and flood control, water supply and providing food, fibre and raw materials.
The Centre had in September 2019, identified 130 wetlands for priority restoration in the next five years and asked states to submit their respective integrated management plan. The highest number of such identified wetlands are in Uttar Pradesh (16) followed by Madhya Pradesh (13), Jammu & Kashmir (12), Gujarat (8), Karnataka (7) and West Bengal (6).
The country's space agency Isro had in 2011
come out with a national wetlands atlas on the basis of satellite image, mapping over two lakh wetlands covering around 4.63% of the total geographic area of India.
India's prominent wetlands include Chilika lake areas (Odisha), Wular lake (J&K), Renuka (Himachal Pradesh), Sambhar
lake (Rajasthan), Deepor Beel (Assam),
East Kolkata wetlands (West Bengal), Nal Sarovar (Gujarat), Harika (Punjab), Rudra Sagar (Tripura) and Bhoj wetland (Madhya Pradesh) among others.
