Complete wetlands’ boundary demarcation in 2 months, Supreme Court tells states

Unhappy over the delay in the “ground truthing and boundary demarcation” of wetlands, the Supreme Court has ordered states to complete the exercise in two months and warned that it would be compelled to pass coercive orders against non-compliant states.

“We direct these States to expedite the ground truthing and boundary demarcation expeditiously and at any rate within an outer limit of two months from today, failing which, the secretaries of the concerned States of the Department of Environment and Ecology will have to personally remain present before this court on next date of hearing,” a Bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria said in its August 19 order.

The top court has been hearing a PIL by bird enthusiast Anand Arya, advocate MK Balakrishnan and NGO Vanashakti filed in 2018 on wetland conservation.

Prior to 2017, the figures given by ISRO regarding the number of wetlands in India having an area of more than 2.25 Hectares was 2,01,503. However, the latest ISRO data of the year 2021 reflected the figure having increased to 2,31,195.

However, advocate Akash Vashishtha, appearing for intervenors Manu Bhatnagar and Vikrant Tongad, claimed that there were 5,55,557 wetlands of 2.25 hectare.

The top court had on December 11, 2024 directed states to verify and identify these figures at the ground level as prescribed under the Wetlands (Conservation of Management) Rules, 2017 which described the exercise as ‘ground truthing’.

Senior Counsel Jayant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner(s), drew the court’s attention to the fact that seven states namely, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra

Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Haryana, Goa, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Sikkim, Karnataka and Ladakh have achieved less than 50% and the States of Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh have achieved less than 40%.

“This would clearly indicate that the respective States Wetland Authorities seem to be moving at a snail’s pace and the direction issued by this Court has not yielded positive results,” it noted.

“In the light of the wetlands having been identified, it is incumbent upon the State Wetland Authorities to publish the same in the respective State Governments’ website… Let the affidavit of compliance be filed immediately after such an exercise being undertaken and at any rate before the next date of hearing,” it said, posting the matter for further hearing on October 7.

It directed the Centre to coordinate with the State Level Wetland Authorities and expedite the issuance of notifications for which the draft notifications were already in place.

“The statistics furnished would also reflect that wetlands, which are less than 2.25 hectares, are required to be identified as prescribed under the extant rules and the affidavits of the state governments of wetland authorities shall also delve upon as to the manner and method in which steps have been taken or being taken to protect these wetlands which are less than 2.25 hectares, which according to the statistics is around 5,55,557 as mentioned in the Wetland Atlas,” it said.