Who cares for our wetlands, flood-mitigation?

The World Migratory Bird is being celebrated on this Saturday, May 13 with the theme – Water. The day is celebrated twice a year – the second Saturdays of May and October - reflecting the cyclical nature of bird migration with varying migration periods in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Every year people around the world take action and organize public events such as bird festivals, education programmes, exhibitions and bird-watching excursions to celebrate WMBD. All these activities can also be undertaken at any time of the year because countries or regions observe the peak of migrations at different times.

As the WMBD website says Water is fundamental to life on our planet. The vast majority of migratory birds rely on aquatic ecosystems during their life cycles. Inland and coastal wetlands, rivers, lakes, streams, marshes, and ponds are all vital for feeding, drinking, or nesting, and also as places to rest and refuel during their long journeys.

WMBD campaign highlights the importance of water for migratory birds and identifies key actions for protecting water resources and aquatic ecosystems.

It is in this context that we have to appreciate Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Control Minister Bhupender Yadav's admission that the “wetlands often get neglected as public goods”. At the recent North-East Regional Wetlands meet, Yadav said the entire society needs to come together to protect these ecosystems.

One may wonder as to why we need wetlands? Minister Bhupender Yadav’s own words: Wetlands are most productive ecosystems and their significance has increased considerably in the 21st Century for supplementing human dietary and water requirements and providing services such as flood abatement, water purification, aquatic productivity, microclimatic regulation, as habitats of fish, birds, wildlife, etc.

Wetlands play another major role as carbon sinks. The Minnesota Board of Water & Soil Resources of the US says all wetlands sequester carbon from the atmosphere through plant photosynthesis and by acting as sediment traps for runoff. Carbon is held in the living vegetation as well as in litter, peats, organic soils, and sediments that have built up, in some instances, over thousands of years.

Yet, the so-called civilisation and infrastructure development has been killing the wetlands. We do not learn from recurring floods and continue to destroy the natural flood-mitigation system. Yadav seems to agree with the WMBD platform which says unfortunately, aquatic ecosystems are becoming increasingly threatened around the world and so are the migratory birds that depend on them. The increasing human demand for water, as well as pollution and climate change, are having a direct impact on the availability of clean water and the conservation status of many migratory birds.

India lost two out of the five wetlands over the past 30 years and 40 per cent of the water bodies lost quality for survival of aquatic animals, Wetland International says. Najafgarh in Delhi and Pallikarani in Chennai are major examples of loss of water resources due to the onslaught of infrastructure, housing and exploitation without alternative strategy. I call it thoughtless action by our urban planners. Chennai lost the most – 90 per cent of its wetlands, Ahmedabad 57 per cent, Bangalore 56 per cent, Hyderabad 53 per cent and Delhi NCR 38 per cent. Now let us examine our government’s concerns and what is it doing on ground. Showing its love for wetlands, the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Control (MOEFCC) has floated IndianWetlands website, but it is a hotch-potch and half-hearted effort. Just 1,243 out wetlands are added to the interactive map of the over two lakh major wetlands each of 2.25 hectares. Then there are over 5.57 lakh odd wetlands of lesser size of the total 7,57, 040 wetlands as per the National Wetland Atlas, are added to the official website. The site says 2,00,205 wetlands which are larger than 2.25 hectares. Of the 1,243 wetlands added to the website 75 are the Ramsar Sites. In all, 115 are categorised as significant wetlands and 1,053 as other wetlands.

We call this a hotch-potch because even a playground of Navi Mumbai – Sitaram Master Udyan at Sanpada in Navi Mumbai – is shown as an “other wetland” while there is no sign of several other major water bodies. So, officially speaking, the mere identification of wetlands is not enough to protect them. They ought to be notified by the state governments since water and land are State subjects. The ISO Atlas did its job. It is for the governments to do the follow-up.

I, therefore, filed an application under the RTI Act seeking the list of identified and notified wetlands across the country and the MOEFCC directed me to the Indian Wetlands portal. I wrote back to the Ministry pointing out the website does not give details such as actual geographical location of wetlands, other than the 75 Ramar sites. Moreover, the Wetland Atlas cannot be comprehended by the common man because of its 1:50,000 scale and even after zooming, we cannot get any details. Thus, the all-important water bodies are being destroyed under the guise of development with no regulatory body bothering about it.

The tragedy is that the government portal does not define the “significant” and “other wetlands”, as mentioned in the MOEFCC site nor does it say anything more about the National Atlas. This is exactly why we called for a proper identification, notification and listing of the wetlands.

As fellow environmentalist Nandakumar Pawar, head of Sagarshakti, the marine wing of NGO Vanashakti, points out, various project proponents such as the Maharashtra Government-owned city planner CIDCO and the Union Government-owned country’s largest container port JNPA have been rejecting the existence of wetlands taking shelter under the fact that these are not notified by the MOEFCC. Thus, we have been losing major wetlands in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) for sure. So much so, CIDCO has gall to reject a suggestion by another Stage government body, the Mangrove Cell, to conserve five major wetlands of Navi Mumbai under the wildlife act. These five wetlands, along with the one at Bhandup in Mumbai, form part of the satellite wetlands plan for the Ramsar Site the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS). Birds fly to these wetlands during high tides when the water level goes up tolerable levels, BNHS said in the TCFS Management Plan 2020-2030 published by the Mangrove Foundation. The Maharashtra Government city planner’s rejection of the existence of wetlands should also be seen in the context of fact that the IndianWetlands website says Coastal wetlands like mangroves, coral reefs, mudflats and estuaries acting as physical barriers limiting damaging effects of storm and tidal surges. In reality, this proclamation has gone for a toss as no serious efforts are being made to protect the ecosystem.

Moreover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes pride in telling the world that we have 75 Ramsar Sites – the wetlands of international significance. He also goes on to direct all the districts to build 75 Amrit Sarovars (fresh ponds) without any mention of the National Wetland Atlas-listed and much neglected waterbodies. The 7.57 lakh wetlands – major minor included – work out to 988 wetlands per district and the government would do well if the taxpayers' money is spent on conserving the existing lakes instead of creating new ones. But the fact is that we cannot decipher the 7.57 lakh wetlands from the Atlas which shows just a few blue lines without any geographical indication.

All that the government does is just rhetoric on global and national forums and official websites about checking carbon emissions.

Wetland conservation begins with the government since it’s the government bodies that destroy nature. Hence, our WMBD campaign should focus on Wetlands which also help in absorbing CO2.

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based independent media veteran, running websites and a YouTube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging)