Lakes and Wetlands

Guest Post: Text by Amitangshu Acharya, Photographs by Ayan Ghosh

Kachchh – a brilliant halfway between a turmeric yellow Rajasthan and the emerald green Sahyadris – offers an upside down version of life. It tells you that seeds of life and civilisation are often hidden beneath the sands of time in inhospitable terrains.

Guest Post by Shashank Srinivasan

High altitude wetlands in the Indian Himalayas are crucial to the water security of downstream communities. They buffer the flow of glacial meltwater to sustain river flow in the dry season, ensuring that human settlements have access to water when they need it most.

High altitude wetlands are also reservoirs of biodiversity and contribute local livelihood opportunities. Identifying these wetlands and demarcating areas for their protection is thus crucial to any wetland management plan.

In this poster, a method of using topographic data obtained by remote sensing techniques, to identify the catchment areas of these wetlands has been described.

The author suggests that the protection of these catchment areas will ensure the survival of these wetlands, as well as of the communities that depend on them.

This advocacy flyer by Arghyam and Peoples Learning Centre (PLC) Shillong highlights some of the main problems, action underway and potential solutions to cleaning up the water bodies of Shillong. It deals with the expanding human habitats and escalating socio-economic activities around the rivers Umkrah and Umshyrpi that flow through Shillong leading to their choking with sewage and pollution. This wastewater eventually enters Lake Umiam, which is a reservoir for hydro-electric power.

PLC is a non-profit organisation that works towards promoting knowledge on equity and rights, and is a platform for facilitating interdisciplinary dialogues between stakeholders in key developmental issues. Arghyam supports PLC in engaging with decision makes as well as citizens in order to create public opinion about river and lake pollution, and promote catchment friendly practices.

The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules was notified in December 2010 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to ensure better conservation and management and to prevent degradation of existing wetlands in India. Wetlands are critical for human development and wellbeing, especially in India where a large number of people are dependent on them for drinking water, food and livelihood. Despite their immense importance, wetlands are one of the most degraded ecosystems globally.

The Mizoram state has three types of (natural) lakes: valley lakes, tectonic/landslide lakes and artificial reservoirs, but the only lake of significance is Palak Dil, which is a natural lake in a depression in the hills. Palak Dil may possibly be a combination of valley and tectonic lakes. Locally in Mizoram, lakes are called dils. There are many such dils scattered all over the state, but they are tiny pools or marshy depressions such as Rengdil, Tamdil and Mampui Dil (Choudhury 2002). The Palak Lake is situated within the Mara Autonomous district Council, which is a region inhabited by the Mara Tribe. The Maras are distinct from the majority Mizos and in the Mara language the Palak Lake is referred to as Pala Tipa.

Dr. Brij Gopal, Vice President, National Institute of Ecology and former Member, Working Group on Minimum Flows, constituted by the Water Quality Assessment Authority, talks to Parineeta Dandekar, India Water Portal about the urgent need of freshwater flows in Indian rivers, and the legal and institutional set ups required to ensure this.

The historical lakes of Udaipur, Rajasthan, namely Pichola - Swaroop Saagar and Fatah Saagar are more than a century old. Filling them above original design full tank level on public demand or over enthusiasm may prove to be a threat to safety.

Lakes are integral components of the ecosystem and serve as natural habitats to a variety of plants and animals, besides being important sources of drinking water and livelihood for people. Industralisation has lead to the release of pollutants into the lakes and destruction of their natural habitats, thus making them unfit for use.

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This paper published in the journal Conservation and Society reassesses/debates the decision taken by the government to dredge a new sea mouth in the Chilika Lake in Orissa, India, which was based on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) studies.

The paper argues that decisions such as these need to be understood and evaluated by taking into consideration not only the underlying technical aspects, but by also exploring the political and historical contexts in which decisions are taken. 

The study determines rates of sedimentation and estimates the useful life of Dal-Nagin lake situated in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir using radiometric techniques. In spite of various ecological problems the lake is the largest freshwater lake in India. It has four major sub-basins viz., Hazratbal, Bod Dal, Garibal and Nagin. The lake is fraught with the problem of growth of underwater weeds and increasing rate of sedimentation.