Five more Indian sites — three each from Tamil Nadu, one in Mizoram and one in Madhya Pradesh — have been recognised as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, taking the number of such sites in the country to 54, the Union Environment Ministry said.
Three wetlands in Tamil Nadu — Karikili Bird Sanctuary, Pallikaranai Marsh Reserve Forest and Pichavaram Mangrove — have been included in the Ramsar list.
Pala wetland in Mizoram and Sakhya Sagar in Madhya Pradesh are also added in the list.
Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupendra Yadav said, the emphasis Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put on environmental protection and conservation has led to a marked improvement in how India treats its wetlands.
In a tweet, he also said that with the five new additions, the number of Ramsar sites in India has been increased from 49 to 54.
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and wise use of wetlands. It is named after the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the Caspian Sea, where the treaty was signed on February 2, 1971.
The aim of the Ramsar list is “to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits”.
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