World Wetlands Day 2022
Sultanpur: India has established the largest network of Ramsar Sites in South Asia with two more wetlands, Khijadiya Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat and Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh (UP) added to the list.
India now has a network of 49 Ramsar sites covering an area of 10,93,636 hectares, the highest in South Asia.
Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary in UP provides a safe wintering and staging ground for a large number of species of the Central Asian Flyway while Khijadia Wildlife Sanctuary is a coastal wetland with rich avifaunal diversity providing a safe habitat to endangered and vulnerable species.
Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav said that the government is taking affirmative action, involving communities and citizens, in halting and reversing wetlands degradation and loss. Yadav was speaking at the national level celebration of World Wetlands day 2022 held today at Sultanpur National Park, a Ramsar site of Haryana, about 15 kilometres from Gurugram.
Also read: Four more sites of India added to Ramsar list as wetlands of international importance.
Expressing happiness that Haryana has last year only received International Ramsar tag for two of its sites, Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, exhorted all to conserve the wetlands and nature in general and also emphasized the importance of balancing development and Ecology.
World Wetlands Day is observed every year on February 2nd all over the world. It is celebrated to raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and our planet. This day also marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar. This year’s theme of World Wetlands Day is “Wetlands Action for People and Nature”, which highlights the importance of actions to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands for humans and planetary health. It may be mentioned that though they cover only around 6 per cent of the Earth’s land surface, 40 per cent of all plant and animal species live or breed in wetlands.
– global bihari bureau
