Kerala - Kochi   

Call to conserve wetlands

KOCHI: The Association for Environmental Protection (Paristhithti Samrakshana Sangham, Aluva) has urged the government to adopt, on a war footing, measures to conserve wetlands in the State which are shrinking and disappearing at an alarming speed, threatening the drinking water security.

Association secretary S. Sitaraman pointed out that Kerala was once rich with a network of wetlands but environmental destruction and encroachments have drastically cut their sizes.

The advantages of wetlands to human life are much more than even rains forests, he said.

They provide drinking water, reduce the impact of beach erosion, conserve biodiversity and help humans and animals in a myriad ways.

He noted that the backwater lakes of Vembanad, Ashtamudi and Sasthamkota were fast shrinking and that if immediate steps were not taken to check it, the State would be in for huge problems.

The 61,400-hectare Ashtamudi Lake is on the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance and, in accordance with the Ramsar Convention to which India is a contracting party, it is the responsibility of the government to protect the water body from destruction.

The list has 1,712 wetlands spread across 158 countries. Ashtamudi Lake was put on the list in 2002. The Convention on Wetlands, signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971, is an inter-governmental treaty which provides the framework for the conservation of wetlands.

The Ramsar Convention was adopted on February 2, 1971 and since 1997, the day is being observed as World Wetlands Day. This year’s Wetlands Day theme is “Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People.”

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