ISSN 2455 - 8575 Volume 4 – Issue 4 October – December 2017 J&K ENVIS NEWSLETTER State of Environment & its related Issues in J&K J&K ENVIS CENTRE Department of Ecology, Environment & Remote Sensing Jammu & Kashmir Special focus on RAMSAR SITES OF J&K CONTENTS • Introduction FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK • What are wetlands? Our organs are vital to our health, with each one playing a significant part. Kidneys, for instance, • Why conserve wetlands? filter our blood to remove waste and fluid. Wetlands are often referred to as “Earth’s kidneys” because ▪ Functions ▪ Values they provide the same functions, absorbing wastes such as nitrogen and phosphorous as well as • Distribution and extent of wetlands in India retaining water on land that prevents flooding in wet years and drought in dry years. This kidney-like • National Wetland Atlas 2011 action occurs in all varieties of wetland – from a small seasonal wet spot in your neighbour’s field to • Wetlands of Jammu and Kashmir hundreds of kilometers of bog and peatland wetlands throughout the world. • Wetland Rules 2017 Wetlands being most productive ecosystems serve in multiple ways viz, water transport boating, • What is the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands? recreation, traditional reverence, ground water recharge, removal of contaminants, source of ▪ How Does it Work? ▪ Three Pillars of Ramsar Convention vegetables (lotus stem, singhara, etc) source of fish, aquaculture, pearl culture, livelihoods ▪ The Montreux Record generation, climate regulation, carbon sequestration, etc. However, loss of vegetation, illegal ▪ Ramsar Wetlands - India encroachments, garbage dumping, city sewerage, weed infestation, land reclamation as wetlands • Wetlands of International Importance of J&K considered wastelands excessive inundation, land degradation, soil and water pollution, invasive under Ramsar Convention species, excessive development and road building, have all damaged our wetlands. The Gharana ▪ Wular Lake and Hokarsar wetlands is reportedly witnessing a decline in visiting migratory bird due to deteriorating ▪ Tsomoriri Lake ▪ Hokersar Wetland ecosystems. Some wetlands have been converted into garbage disposal sites. A number of high ▪ Surinsar and Mansar Lakes altitude lakes in the Pir Panjal Himalayan range seem to have disappeared even before their • What Is Adversely Affecting Our Wetlands? inventory. Disturbances in wetland ecosystems will end up not only in water crises, crop failure and • Wetland Management & Strategy disordered local socio-economies and major ecological disasters. All these changes accelerated by • What Can You Do? human interference in the ecological domain are consequently bound to affect one and all. This issue • Media Update • Upcoming Events – World Wetlands Day 2018 covers the crisp information on wetlands and brings into focus the Ramsar sites in the state. Om Prakash Sharma, IFS Director DEE&RS, J&K INTRODUCTION Wetlands covering about six per cent of the earth surface, are among the world's most productive environments and by providing sufficient water and the primary productivity, they sustain and harbour a vast range of biological diversity. Local and regional importance of wetlands is even more pronounced and pivotal from both ecological and socioeconomic viewpoints. More than three billion people, around half the world's population, obtain their basic water needs from inland freshwater wetlands. The same number of people relies on rice as their staple food, a crop grown largely in natural and artificial wetlands. In some parts of the world, almost the entire local population relies on wetland cultivation for their livelihoods. In addition to food, wetlands supply fibre, fuel and medicinal plants. WHAT ARE WETLANDS? Wetlands are areas where water is the primary factor controlling the environment and the associated plant and animal life. They occur where the water table is at or near the surface of the land, or where the land is covered by shallow water. ❖ According to most widespread definition wetlands are defined as: "lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic eco-systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water". ❖ Ramsar Convention on Wetlands define wetlands as: "areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres". Five major wetland types are generally recognized: • Marine (coastal wetlands including coastal lagoons, rocky shores, and coral reefs); • Estuarine (including deltas, tidal marshes, and mangrove swamps); • Lacustrine (wetlands associated with lakes); • Riverine (wetlands along rivers and streams); and • Palustrine (meaning “marshy” – marshes, swamps and bogs). In addition, there are human-made wetlands such as fish and shrimp ponds, farm ponds, irrigated agricultural land, salt pans, reservoirs, gravel pits, sewage farms and canals. The Ramsar Convention has adopted a Ramsar Classification of Wetland Type which includes 42 types, grouped into three categories: • Marine and Coastal Wetlands, • Inland Wetlands, and • Human-made Wetlands. Quick Info: Wetlands occur everywhere, from the tundra to the tropics. How much of the earth’s surface is presently composed of wetlands is not known exactly? The UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre has suggested an estimate of about 570 million hectares (5.7 million km2); roughly 6% of the Earth’s land surface; Mitsch and Gosselink, in their standard textbook Wetlands, 4th ed. (2007), suggest 4 to 6% of the Earth’s land surface. Mangroves cover some 240,000 km2 of coastal area, and an estimated 600,000km2 of coral reefs remain worldwide. Nevertheless, a global review of wetland resources prepared for Ramsar COP7 in 1999, while affirming that “it is not possible to provide an acceptable figure of the areal extent of wetlands at a global scale”, indicated a ‘best’ minimum global estimate at between 748 and 778 million hectares. The same report indicated that this “minimum” could be increased to a total of between 999 and 4,462 million hectares when other sources of information were taken into account. WHY CONSERVE WETLANDS? Access to safe water, human health, food production, economic development and geopolitical stability are made less secure by the degradation of wetlands driven by the rapidly widening gap between water demand and supply. Even with current attempts to maintain water flows for ecosystems, the capacity of wetlands to continue to deliver benefits to people and biodiversity, including clean and reliable water supplies, is declining. Efforts to support water allocation to ecosystems, such as environmental flows, placing upper limits on water allocations, and new water management legislation, must be strengthened. The multiple roles of wetland ecosystems and their value to humanity have been increasingly understood and documented in recent years. This has led to large expenditures to restore lost or degraded hydrological and biological functions of wetlands. Functions: The interactions of physical, biological and chemical components of a wetland, as part of the “natural infrastructure” of the planet, such as soils, water, plants and animals, enable the wetland to perform many vital functions. Values: Wetlands frequently provide tremendous economic benefits, including water supply (quantity and quality); fisheries (over two thirds of the world’s fish-harvest is linked to the health of wetland areas); agriculture, through the maintenance of water tables and nutrient retention in floodplains; timber and other building materials; energy resources, such as peat and plant matter; wildlife resources; transport; a wide range of other wetland products, including herbal medicines; and recreation and tourism opportunities. In addition, wetlands have special attributes as part of the cultural heritage of humanity – they are related to religious and cosmological beliefs and spiritual values, constitute a source of aesthetic and artistic inspiration, yield invaluable archaeological evidence from the remote past, provide wildlife sanctuaries, and form the basis of important local social, economic, and cultural traditions. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), published in 2006, ecosystems are described as the complex of living communities (including human communities) and non-living environment (Ecosystem Components) interacting (through Ecological Processes) as a functional unit which provides a variety of benefits to people (Ecosystem Services). Included in the term “Ecosystem Services” are provisioning, regulating, and cultural services that directly affect people, and supporting services which are needed to maintain these other services. Water Chestnut, (Trapa bispinosa) Vegetable production & Marketing Nelumbo nucifera (Nadru) produce from Wetlands Wicker Willow Industry Matting Industry Water transport of Goods Water Transport Fishing Migratory Bird Habitat (Recreation) Water spinach,Nasturtium aquaticumvv (Chabb) Tourism Religious importance A Glimpse of Wetlands in Service of Mankind DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT OF WETLANDS IN INDIA India, with its varying topography and climatic regimes, supports diverse and unique wetland habitats. The available estimates about the areal extent of wetlands in India vary widely from a lowest of 1% to a highest of 5% of geographical area, but do support nearly fifth of the known biodiversity (Space