Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)

Wetlands are very important and productive ecosystems that support a wide range of plants and animals and provide livelihood opportunities to local communities in India.

This report on a round table held in November 2009 by a cross section of activists, policy analysts and academics deals with a move by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to restructure the environmental governance structure of the country through the proposed National Environmental Protection Agency.

 One tributary was within a protected area (PA; Corbett National Park); the other two were outside the PA (Lansdowne Forest Division). Cast nets were used for fish sampling, which was done from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

The lakes are now faced with the impacts of rapid urbanization and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been consolidating management of the majority of the city’s lakes under its control in the recent years. The survey dealt with 35 lakes in 10 sub chains in Mahadevpura. The report describes current status, studies changes in extent, and suggests steps for reclamation and conservation.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests released a draft of the regulatory framework for wetland conservation - Wetlands Conservation and Management Rules (2009) for feedback from all stakeholders. The draft framework was prepared by a multi-disciplinary expert group, and final round of comments were invited till June 21st 2010.

The Wetland Conservation Team of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) did a detailed analysis of the draft regulation and submitted several pertinent concerns to the Ministry. The most significant observation is that the new framework (as do much of India's policies and laws) continues to propose unjustifiable State control and interventions over the country's wetlands and livelihoods of people dependent on them. The regulation does not make any constructive suggestions or recommendations for the conservation that the country's wetlands demand, and instead brings all wetlands into complete official control by installing Central, State and District-level wetland regulatory authorities, wherein the majority of the members will be senior government officials.

Measurement of riverine biota, particularly benthic macroinvertebrates (such as crustaceans and aquatic insects) and fish, has become a widely accepted method of identifying the structural or functional integrity and the overall health of a riverine system. This manual from the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB), describes in detail the field procedures to be followed in such fish monitoring/measurement surveys, conducted for riverine ecological systems.

KSBB has taken up this manual publication effort, in the conxtet of a state-wide fish monitoring programme, that aims to survey all the 44 rivers of Kerala with the involvement of resource persons from local colleges, research institutes, experts and fisherpeople community.

The Vembanad estuarine system, the largest of its kind on the west coast of India is known to be abundantly enriched with diverse fishery resources, providing feeding, spawning and rearing areas for a very large proportion of commercial (fin) fish and shellfish. However, ecosystem health of the Vembanad wetlands is alarmingly declining due to a variety of reasons - obstruction of river courses, sand mining & habitat destruction, loss of riparian canopy cover, encroachment, pollution and unethical fishing practices. Reduced summer flow due to drying up of rivers and pollution hazards from agro-chemicals and sewage also lead to mass mortality of fishes. Depletion of fishery resources has changed this ‘inland fish basket’ to an ‘inland wastebasket’, driving the fisherfolk, the primary stakeholders of the lake into a livelihood crisis.

The World Wetland day 2010 was celebrated by CERC-ATREE with a number of programmes. As an Annual event ‘WETLAND FESTIVAL 2010’ involving the students and teachers from the wetland clubs of Jalapadom schools around the Lake, was held at Kalyani auditorium, Aleppey.