02/02/2006 - New Delhi,
India – India has designated six new wetlands
to the Ramsar Convention on Wetland’s list
of wetlands of international importance.
The wetland areas include the : Hokera Wetland
and Surinsar-Mansur Lakes in the northwestern
Himalayan province of Jammu & Kashmir;
Chandertal Wetland and Renuka in Himachal
Pradesh; Rudrasagar Lake in the northeastern
state of Tripura; and Upper Ganga River
in Uttar Pradesh.
The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar,
Iran, in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty
which provides the framework for national
action and international cooperation for
the conservation and wise use of wetlands
and their resources. There are presently
150 contracting parties to the Convention,
with 1,585 wetland sites, totalling 134
million hectares, designated for inclusion
in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International
Importance.
The designations, announced on World Wetlands
Day, bring the number of Ramsar sites in
India to 25.
“The announcement could not have come at
a better time,” said Ravi Singh, Secretary
General and CEO of WWF-India.
“Wetlands everywhere have come under severe
threat as a result of ongoing drainage,
land reclamation, pollution and over-exploitation
of their resources. Designating more wetlands
as Ramsar sites augurs well for wetlands
conservation in the country for the biodiversity
wealth they nurture, ecological services
they provide and the livelihoods they support.”
Protecting, restoring and managing representative
networks of freshwater habitats is urgently
required to conserve freshwater biodiversity
and ensure supplies of water, food, materials
and services for communities.
“Managing our wetland resources and evolving
a policy framework that supports it, is
the next crucial step,” added Dr Parikshit
Gautam, director of WWF-India’s freshwater
and wetlands programme Director.
WWF wants to see 250 million hectares of
global wetlands be protected and sustainably
managed by 2010.
