Three more wetlands get international Ramsar tag
Aman Sood
Tribune News Service
Patiala, January 27
Ahead of the International Wetlands Day that falls on February 2, the Wildlife Department has managed to bag an international Ramsar tag for three more wetlands in the state, taking the total to six.
1,381 wetlands in state
According to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, Punjab has 1,381 mapped wetlands. Besides, there are 5,049 small wetlands. The total wetland area in the state is 86,283 ha — 1.71% of the state’s area.
The three new entrants to the Ramsar list are Keshopur-Miani community reserve, Beas conservation reserve and Nangal wildlife sanctuary.
The state already has three Ramsar sites — Harike, which falls in Kapurthala, Ferozepur and Tarn Taran districts; Kanjli in Kapurthala district; and Ropar.
A Ramsar site is a wetland designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The Convention on Wetlands, known as the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental environmental treaty established in 1971 by UNESCO, which came into force in 1975. It is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the convention was signed.
The Ramsar tag for three more wetlands comes two years after the constitution of the Punjab State Wetlands Authority.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Wildlife Kuldip Kumar said, “The department had been working hard for the past four years to get the Ramsar tag for Keshopur-Miani, Beas and Nangal wetlands. Now that the objective has been achieved, Punjab will become an important player in the international wildlife tourism sector and attract world’s attention in protecting biodiversity.”
The Keshopur-Miani community reserve in Gurdaspur, spread over 343.9 hectares (ha), is a natural wetland. It is the only habitat for sarus and common cranes in the state.
The Beas conservation reserve, spread over 185-km stretch of the Beas river starting from Talwara to Harike headworks, is located in seven districts — Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran and Ferozepur. It is the only place in the country that hosts Indus river dolphins.
The gharial re-introduction project was initiated in the Beas conservation reserve in 2017.
The man-made wetland of Nangal wildlife sanctuary with an area of 116 ha came into existence as a result of the Bhakra-Nangal project in 1961. The surrounding forests are located in the highly eco-sensitive Shivalik foothills.
