Kerala - Kannur   

Call to preserve wetlands

Staff Reporter

Need to formulate national legal framework

KANNUR: Experts have called for a national legal framework to protect wetlands in the State.

Speakers at a seminar on `wetlands, `kavus' (sacred groves) and hillocks' organised by the District Forest Extension and Information Centre here on Tuesday, on the occasion of the World Forestry Day, said large extents of wetlands and hillocks were being destroyed to promote development.

`Accord importance'

The former director, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology, V.S. Vijayan spoke on `Conservation and sustainable use of wetland resources.'

He said that the economic potential of the wetlands could be used without compromising conservation goals. The wetlands were not being accorded the importance it deserved, he said adding that the global service value of the wetland ecosystem was pegged at US $ 33 trillion.

Service value

Dr. Vijayan said the service value of the wetland ecosystem was seven times more than that of tropical forests. The service rendered by the wetlands for treating waste water was estimated at Rs.1.92 lakh a ha a year. The wetland area in the country was 13.1 million ha and the State's share 3,28,000 ha, he said. Fifty per cent of the wetland area had disappeared all over the world, Dr. Vijayan. India had lost 38 per cent of its wetlands as they were considered to be wasteland or unassessed waste.

"We need a national action plan to protect the wetlands that are rich in biodiversity," Dr. Vijayan said.

He said wetlands should be brought under the watershed management programme. Stressing the importance of establishing a wetland inventory and conducting a wetland survey for creating a database, he said the Central Government should constitute a National Wetland Authority with constitutional powers and appoint a retired Supreme Court judge as the chairman.

Ecological disaster

Earlier, inaugurating the seminar, agricultural scientist K.P. Prabhakaran Nair said that if the wetlands and hillocks were not protected, there would be ecological disaster.

Stating that the Green Revolution had wrought ecological disaster in the country, Dr. Prabhakaran Nair added that the wetland ecosystem at Kattampally was a victim of the Green Revolution.

He stressed the need to conserve sacred groves and hillocks that were fast disappearing from the State.

Forest conservator (northern region) D.K. Varma presided over the function. Environmentalists Khaleel Chovva, E. Unnikrishnan, Dinesh Cheruvattil, ornithologist C. Sasikumar and Society for Environmental Education in Kerala T.P. Padmanabhan were among those who spoke at the seminar.

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