Saving India’s Wetlands

Wetlands, though covering only a small fraction of the Earth’s land surface, support a disproportionately large share of global biodiversity and provide critical ecosystem services such as flood regulation and climate moderation. India’s civilisational landscape from Himalayan lakes to coastal mangroves has been shaped by these ecosystems. Reflecting this importance, India expanded its Ramsar sites from 26 in 2014 to 98 in 2026 covering surface area 1,384.140 ha, the highest in Asia. This signals a shift towards community-driven, culture-integrated wetland governance aligned with sustainability goals. 

What is the Significance of Wetlands for India? 

• Hydrological Security & Urban Flood Mitigation: Wetlands function as natural "sponges" in India's rapid urbanization landscape, absorbing excess rainfall to mitigate flash floods while recharging aquifers during lean periods.  
  • This "sponge city" capability is critical for water security, as they govern the hydrological cycle by retaining runoff and releasing it slowly, acting as a buffer against the erratic precipitation patterns induced by climate change. 
  • For example, the Bhoj Wetlands in Bhopal have played a crucial role in buffering monsoon floods while sustaining the city’s drinking water supply, demonstrating how protected urban wetlands enhance both flood resilience and water security. 
• Carbon Sequestration & Climate Action: Indian wetlands, particularly mangroves and peatlands, are potent "Blue Carbon" sinks, sequestering carbon up to 10-50 times faster than terrestrial forests.  
  • Wetlands are central to India's NDC commitments, as their anaerobic soils lock carbon for millennia, making their conservation a high-impact natural climate solution for achieving the net-zero target by 2070.  
  • For instance, the MISHTI Scheme aims to restore 540 sq km of mangroves across 9 coastal states, with an estimated carbon sequestration potential of 4.5 million tonnes. 
• Economic Valuation & Livelihood Sustenance: Wetlands are not wastelands but high-value economic assets supporting fisheries, agriculture (e.g., Makhana farming), and eco-tourism under the "Wise Use" framework.  
  • They sustain millions of livelihoods, functioning as a primary source of income for marginalized riparian communities through integrated resource management, which the government is now formalizing to boost local economies.  
  • For example, the Amrit Dharohar scheme (launched 2023) promotes unique conservation values to generate green jobs.  
    • A recent valuation of Kerala's Kole Wetlands estimated their Total Economic Value (TEV) at $54 million, largely from paddy and flood control. 
• Pollution Abatement & Waste Management: Acting as "Nature's Kidneys," wetlands filter heavy metals, nitrogen, and phosphorus from agricultural runoff and industrial effluents through bio-filtration and sedimentation.  
  • This ecosystem service reduces the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of water bodies, offering a cost-effective, nature-based solution to India's sewage treatment deficit and river pollution crisis. 
  • For instance, the East Kolkata Wetlands (a Ramsar site) save Kolkata nearly ₹4,680 million annually by naturally treating sewage. 
• Biodiversity Hotspots & Migratory Corridors: Wetlands are biodiversity hotspots that support migratory flyways and endangered species, serving as a global barometer for ecological health, which India has prioritized by expanding its network of internationally recognized sites under the Ramsar Convention and by fulfilling international commitments under the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). 
  • India is a critical wintering ground on the Central Asian Flyway (CAF), with wetlands acting as vital refueling stops for millions of migratory birds 
  • For instance, Pallikaranai (Chennai), Pulicat Lake (Tamil Nadu), Khijadia Bird Sanctuary (Gujarat), Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan) and Hokersar wetland (also known as Hokera in Jammu & Kashmir) serve as major wintering grounds. 
• Coastal Defense & Disaster Resilience: Coastal wetlands, especially mangroves and coral reefs, act as bio-shields against cyclones, storm surges, and tsunamis, which are increasing in frequency due to warming oceans.  
  • They dissipate wave energy and stabilize shorelines against erosion, effectively protecting India's densely populated coastal economic zones and critical infrastructure from climate-induced disasters. 
  • For instance, during Cyclone Dana (2024), the Bhitarkanika Mangroves in Odisha significantly reduced wind velocity and storm impact, shielding inland villages and saving millions in infrastructure damage. 
• Groundwater Recharge & Agrarian Sustainability: Wetlands act as critical "percolation tanks" that recharge depleted aquifers, sustaining India's groundwater-dependent agrarian economy and preventing soil salinization in semi-arid zones.  
  • This ecosystem service is vital for national food security, serving as the primary natural counter-measure against the rising threat of desertification and water scarcity in the intensively farmed Indo-Gangetic plains.  
  • The Kole Wetlands of Kerala are regarded as one of the state’s primary “rice bowls,” noted for their exceptionally high productivity. These below–sea-level wetlands are distinguished by a unique and highly specialised system of rice cultivation. 
• Geo-Strategic Security & Glacial Stability: High-altitude wetlands in the Himalayas serve as geo-strategic assets near sensitive borders (LAC), regulating meltwater essential for military logistics while acting as buffers against Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).  
  • Preserving these fragile ecosystems is a matter of national security to protect strategic infrastructure (bridges/roads) and border connectivity from climate-induced hydrological disasters.  
  • For instance, the Tso Kar Wetland Complex (Ladakh) was strategically designated a Ramsar site to secure water resources (freshwater Startsapuk Tso). 
• Cultural Heritage & Community Stewardship: Wetlands are central to India's "Hydro-Social" fabric, serving as sacred spaces that drive decentralized conservation through religious reverence and traditional community ownership (Commons).  
  • This cultural connection facilitates bottom-up governance, ensuring higher long-term survival rates of restoration projects compared to purely bureaucratic interventions by leveraging "Shramdaan" (voluntary labor). 
    • The Renuka Lake (Himachal) exemplifies this, where its status as a sacred site enforces strict local bans on pollution and encroachment. 
  • Mission Amrit Sarovar has successfully rejuvenated over 68,000 water bodies as of January 2025 through community participation.  

What Measure has been Taken to Conserve Wetlands in India?  

• Operationalization of "Amrit Dharohar" for Livelihood Integration: By transitioning from high-volume to high-value nature tourism, it turns ecological assets into economic engines, ensuring that conservation pays for itself through community stewardship. 
  • In the first phase of this programme, five priority Ramsar sites were identified namely Sultanpur National Park, Sirpur wetland, Yashwant Sagar, Bhitarkanika National Park, and Chilika Lake. 
    • Under this initiative, two training programmes namely Alternative Livelihood program (ALP), and Paryatan Navik Certificate (PNC) are conducted to train and certify local community members.  
• Global Recognition via  "Wetland City Accreditation" (WCA) : To combat the rampant urbanization that swallows peri-urban water bodies, India has aggressively pursued the Ramsar Convention’s WCA, which effectively mandates a "Sponge City" urban planning framework.  
  • This creates a dual layer of protection where municipal master plans must legally align with wetland preservation to retain this prestigious international branding, forcing cities to treat lakes as flood-buffers rather than real estate. 
  • For instance, in January 2025, Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Udaipur (Rajasthan) became India’s first cities to receive this accreditation, validating their strict zoning laws. 
• Institutionalizing Citizen Science through "Wetland Mitras": Moving beyond government-only monitoring, the "Save Wetlands Campaign" has institutionalized a bottom-up surveillance network by enrolling "Wetland Mitras" (Friends of Wetlands).  
  • This "Jan Andolan" (people's movement) creates a decentralized, non-official vigilance squad that reports encroachment and pollution in real-time, effectively bridging the gap between remote bureaucratic authority and ground-level reality. 
• Implementation of "Green Credit" for Private Financing: The notification of the Green Credit Programme (GCP) has created a market-based financial mechanism that allows private corporations to earn tradable credits for funding wetland restoration.  
  • This reduces the burden on the exchequer and incentivizes the private sector to restore degraded water bodies not just for CSR, but for regulatory offsets, effectively monetizing ecological rejuvenation. 
  • Under the 2023 Rules, companies are now earning credits for reviving mangrove ecosystems. 
• Deployment of Dynamic "Wetland Health Cards": The Ministry has replaced static maps with dynamic "Wetland Health Cards" that integrate geospatial data from ISRO with ground-level turbidity and dissolved oxygen readings.  
  • This analytical tool provides a real-time "ECG" of the wetland, moving administration from reactive crisis management to proactive maintenance by triggering automated red-flag alerts when ecological indicators breach safety thresholds. 
  • The concept of health cards for water bodies emerged from the ‘Sahbhagita Mission’ launched in 2022, which focused on creating awareness for wetland conservation.  
    • Under the mission, over two million people were sensitised, around 80,000 wetlands were surveyed, health cards for more than 6,200 wetlands were prepared, and over 18,000 Wetland Mitras were registered nationwide. (DTE- September 2024) 
• Aggressive Expansion of the Ramsar Network: India has strategically increased its diplomatic footprint in conservation by aggressively nominating sites for Ramsar status, thereby invoking international scrutiny and binding treaty obligations for their protection.  
  • This massive expansion acts as a geopolitical soft-power tool while legally locking these sites into a "no-regression" conservation status that prevents future governments from denotifying them. 
  • India’s Ramsar network exploded to 98 sites in 2026 (up from just 26 in 2014), making it the largest network in Asia. 
• Legal Mandate on "Ground Truthing" for Small Wetlands: To close the loophole where small wetlands (<2.25 hectares) were ignored and built over, the Supreme Court has repeatedly called for "Ground Truthing" requiring physical verification of satellite maps.  
  • This ensures that "ghost wetlands"(those that exist on paper but are dried up, or vice versa) are legally documented and notified, extending the Public Trust Doctrine to even minor village ponds. 
  • India’s ‘Mission Sahbhagita’ and the ‘Save Wetlands Campaign’ have mobilised more than 2 million citizens, resulting in the ground-truthing of over 170,000 wetlands and the boundary demarcation of nearly 100,000 wetlands across the country. 
• Revised NPCA Guidelines for "Catchment-Scale" Management: The National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA) guidelines were radically revised to mandate "Framework Management Plans" that look beyond the water body to the entire catchment area.  
  • This ensures that funding is not wasted on cosmetic beautification but is directed towards checking siltation and pollution at the source, enforcing a basin-scale hydrological approach to conservation. 

What are the Challenges Associated with Conservation of Wetlands in India? 

• "Concrete Creep" & Urban Encroachment: The most acute threat is the conversion of "Commons" into commercial real estate, driven by the ambiguity in land revenue records where wetlands are often classified as "wastelands."  
  • This regulatory blind spot allows developers to legally reclaim hydrological buffers for infrastructure, destroying the city's natural flood resilience and creating irreversible "urban heat islands. 
  • For instance, Chennai’s Pallikaranai marsh has shrunk by 90% in 30 years, directly causing the severe urban floods. 
• Toxic Influx & Eutrophication: Indian wetlands are functioning as unintended sewage treatment plants, receiving unchecked industrial effluents and domestic waste that cause hyper-eutrophication and dissolved oxygen depletion.  
  • This chemical assault triggers "Dead Zones" where aquatic life suffocates, turning biodiversity hotspots into biological graveyards and vector-borne disease breeding grounds. 
  • The arrival of migratory birds this year to Harike, northern India's largest wetland, declined 12% in 2023 from 2021, due to severe pollution in the Sutlej river.  
• Regulatory Fragmentation & Legal Loopholes: Despite a dedicated regulatory framework, weak implementation and fragmented governance have undermined wetland protection in India. 
  • In 2017, the Supreme Court imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 on the government for its failure to prepare a comprehensive wetland inventory and address deficiencies in 1,683 proposals for conservation. 
  • This decentralized "opt-in" model relies on State Wetland Authorities who often delay notification to keep land available for potential industrial diversion.  
• Hydrological Strangulation & Siltation: Unplanned upstream infrastructure (dams/canals) cuts off the natural environmental flows required to flush wetlands, leading to severe siltation and the "terrestrialization" of water bodies.  
  • This physical strangulation reduces the wetland's depth and water-holding capacity, effectively turning dynamic aquatic ecosystems into static landmasses over mere decades.  
  • For instance, Wular has extensively lost water-holding capacity over the last three decades mainly due to siltation from degraded catchments. 
• Invasive Species & Biological Invasion: Aggressive invasive alien species like Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and African Catfish are outcompeting native flora and fauna, altering the food web and choking the water surface.  
  • This biological invasion blocks sunlight penetration, decimating submerged vegetation and destroying the roosting grounds of indigenous waterfowl, leading to an "empty forest" syndrome in wetlands. 
  • Invasive alien plant and animal species pose a serious threat to the ecological health of India’s inland freshwater wetlands, which span about 58.2 million hectares and are exceptionally rich in biodiversity.  
    • Indian wetlands host nearly 1,200 plant species and support around 17,853 known large and small animal species, almost one-fifth of the country’s total known fauna. 
• Climate Change & Phenological Mismatch: Rapidly changing temperature and rainfall patterns are drying up seasonal wetlands before migratory birds arrive, creating a "phenological mismatch" where resource availability does not align with species needs.  
  • This climate stress is causing erratic migration timings and forcing birds to abandon traditional wintering grounds for sub-optimal habitats, risking population collapse.  
  • The Ramsar Global Wetland Outlook 2025 estimates that the planet has lost roughly 22% of its wetlands since 1970. In India, studies suggest that the country has lost nearly one-third of its wetlands over the past three decades, mainly due to agriculture, encroachment and pollution. 
• Microplastic Infiltration & Chemical "Cocktail" Pollution: Beyond traditional sewage, Indian wetlands are increasingly becoming repositories for microplastics and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) from cosmetic and textile industries.  
  • This "invisible" pollution enters the aquatic food chain through benthic organisms, leading to bioaccumulation in fish and migratory birds, which ultimately poses a severe neurotoxic and reproductive risk to the human populations dependent on these ecosystems.  
• Socio-Economic Conflict & Tenure Ambiguity: There is a widening "Conservation-Livelihood" rift where top-down Ramsar designations often overlook the traditional "usufruct rights" of local fishing and farming communities, leading to resistance against protection measures.  
  • Without clear land titles or "Blue Carbon" benefit-sharing frameworks, local stakeholders often view wetlands as a barrier to development rather than an asset, resulting in clandestine reclamation and non-cooperation with state authorities.  
  • For instance, in 2021, protests erupted at Deepor Beel (Assam) as local communities challenged new eco-sensitive zone restrictions. 

What Measures are Needed to Enhance Wetland Conservation in India?  

• Catchment-Scale "Source-to-Sink" Treatment: Conservation efforts often fail because they focus solely on the water body; we must instead mandate Catchment Area Treatment (CAT) plans that secure the entire hydrological feeder network.  
  • This involves extensive afforestation and soil conservation in the upland areas where water originates to prevent siltation and maintain the natural flow regime. By treating the catchment, we ensure the wetland receives clean, sediment-free water, vital for its long-term survival against drying up. 
• Leveraging the "Green Credit" Programme for Financing: To bridge the funding gap, the government should aggressively operationalize the Green Credit Programme (GCP), allowing private corporations to earn tradable credits for restoring degraded wetlands.  
  • This creates a market-based financial mechanism where companies invest in desilting and rejuvenation projects not just for CSR, but for tangible regulatory offsets. This monetizes ecological restoration, making wetland preservation a financially viable venture for the private sector. 
• Strategic Development of "Constructed Wetlands": Urban municipalities must adopt "Constructed Wetlands" as a nature-based solution for treating raw sewage before it enters main water bodies.  
  • Mimicking the East Kolkata Wetlands model, these artificial filtration systems use specific aquatic plants and microbial action to naturally break down organic waste and heavy metals.  
  • This low-cost, decentralized infrastructure prevents eutrophication and reduces the load on expensive, energy-intensive Sewage Treatment Plants(STPs). 
• Strict "Ground Truthing" and Geo-tagging of Small Wetlands: Following recent Supreme Court directives, there is an urgent need to legally notify and geo-tag wetlands which are currently vulnerable to land grabbing.  
  • Revenue departments must conduct physical "ground truthing" to update land records, explicitly categorizing these small water bodies as 'wetlands' to invoke protection under the Public Trust Doctrine.  
  • This legal firewall is the only way to stop the rampant conversion of peri-urban ponds into real estate. 
• Integrating "Sponge City" Concepts in Master Plans: City Master Plans must legally mandate the retention of urban wetlands as natural flood buffers, aligning with the criteria for "Wetland City Accreditation" under the Ramsar Convention.  
  • This involves zoning laws that prohibit construction in floodplains and require the creation of permeable surfaces around lakes to facilitate groundwater recharge.  
  • By treating wetlands as critical urban infrastructure for flood mitigation rather than empty plots, we secure their existence against urbanization. 
• Enforcing "Buffer Zone" Agro-Ecology: To tackle the silent killer of agricultural runoff, we must notify distinct 'Eco-Sensitive Zones' around major wetlands where chemical farming is strictly prohibited.  
  • State governments should subsidize a transition to organic or natural farming in this buffer belt, ensuring that the water entering the wetland is free from nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers.  
  • This preventative measure is essential to stop the algal blooms that choke wetlands and deplete oxygen levels. 
• Biological Control of Invasive Alien Species: Many Indian wetlands are being suffocated by invasive weeds like Water Hyacinth which disrupt the native ecosystem and increase evapotranspiration.  
  • A systematic, science-backed removal program using biological control agents (like weevils) or controlled dredging must be implemented, rather than ad-hoc manual cleaning.  
  • Regular removal turns this biomass into green manure or energy, converting a biological threat into an economic resource while restoring the water surface. 

Conclusion: 

Wetlands are not ecological luxuries but critical natural infrastructure underpinning India’s water security, climate resilience and biodiversity conservation. Their degradation converts climate risks into development disasters, from urban floods to livelihood loss. A shift towards community-led, science-backed and catchment-scale governance, anchored in Mission LiFE, is imperative. Protecting wetlands today is thus an investment in sustainable development, disaster resilience and intergenerational equity. 

Drishti Mains Question Despite an expanded legal and institutional framework, wetland degradation in India continues unabated. Analyse the major challenges associated with wetland conservation in India and suggest measures to address them in a rapidly urbanising and climate-vulnerable context.