World Wetland Day is celebrated on 2nd February every year to commemorate the day on which the Convention on Wetlands was adopted in the year 1971.
The main purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the conservation, and wise use of wetlands. Just as forests are called as the ‘lungs of the earth’, wetlands are the ‘kidneys’ that regulate water and filter waste from the landscape. The BEd programme offered by Directorate of Distance Education University of Kashmir has one of the core papers titled as Environmental Education.
Right from inception I have been telling thousands of pupil teachers that this paper is not just to pass a BEd examination but a mass awareness tool to sensitize their students to display eco-friendly behavior.
During the contact classes pupil teachers are told to read current environmental related articles from newspapers, journals, magazines.
Next day these articles are discussed and debated in the class where I play the role of the moderator. This is followed by PPT presentations and sharing of environmental e-resources on the respective whatsApp group of the students. Using Google docs online quiz is conducted to check the level of environmental awareness of the pupil teachers.
The methodology used by me to impart environmental education has been non-formal with focus on field visits and preparation of brief project reports based on action research.
During the class I use to give a small qualitative based research assignment to students who come from diverse geographical demographic backgrounds to identify a red zone of immediate environmental concern in their catchment area.
Accordingly tangible action plan is chalked out and each pupil teacher conducts mass awareness in their catchment area and prepare a brief project report supported with relevant photographs, newspaper cuttings and submit in pdf format to save paper.
During our field studies we had made extensive tour of various wetlands in Kashmir and conducted awareness related activities. The importance of wetlands is very significant keeping in view the health and ecology of our hydrosphere.
Realizing the importance of Wetlands, the Ministry of Environment & Forests Government of India published Wetland Rule, 2010/2017 under the aegis of EP Act 1986, which adequately defines the management of Wetlands.
The Ramsar Convention is the inter-governmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The Convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
As per the Ramsar Convention, Wetlands have been defined as “areas of marsh 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 meters”.
The Jammu and Kashmir is house of many wetlands, which are directly linked to the livelihood requirements of the local inhabitants apart from their ecological, biodiversity, cultural and tourism significance.
These Wetlands are subjected to terrific pressure on account of silt deposition, undue human intervention like encroachments, agricultural cultivation, cattle grazing and over extraction of fodder, fuel, fish and wicker-willow.
Keeping in view its flat topography, Kashmir is highly susceptible to flooding, but most wetlands, which acted as reservoirs of floodwaters, have lost their carrying capacity due to disorganized urbanization and encroachments.
Deep dredging should not be done as that prevents the migratory birds from getting nourishment. Only manual de-weeding can be done and that is the best solution. Use of JCBs for dredging should be restricted. According to a report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation over 120 hectares (2373 kanal) of wetland were lost in J&K between 2006-07 and 2017-18.
The gradual squeezing of these wetlands is affecting their buffering capacity to withhold flood waters and storm water runoff. This was witnessed during the 2014 floods when residential areas in the outskirts of Srinagar, which used to be traditional floodplains, were inundated for more than three weeks.
The wetlands that are declared Ramsar sites are Shallabugh, Haigam, Hokersar, Wullar in Kashmir and Surinsar-Mansar in Jammu. Shallabugh wetland in Ganderbal is spread over 16.0 square kilometers. Encroachment, unabated pollution and lack of conservation measures has drastically affected the eco-system of the wetland.
The Hygam wetland spread over 7.25 kilometers is one of the famous wetlands in Baramulla district. It has 1400 hectares of land and the area is dominated by extensive reed beds. Traditional reed mats, locally called ‘Wagoow’ is made from this wild vegetation.
Due to large scale encroachments and insensitivity of authorities to keep check on human interference in the Hygam wetland, it has squeezed to a big pond, forcing migratory birds to find an alternative habitat as their winter home.
Being the Coordinator of BEd Ganderbal and Bandipora I facilitated the pupil teachers of these two districts to conduct mass awareness along with vigorous follow up among the local populace to save unrecognized Ahansar wetland in their twin districts. The summary of the project report submitted by students is reproduced here.
Ahansar wetland is one of the fresh water rural lakes of Kashmir. Ahansar is surrounded by village Ahan from Ganderbal side and Sumbal and Nesban from Bandipora side. The wetland is under heavy ecological stress due to increasing land use encroachment.
Various agricultural activities are carried out on the wetland shores that has been trespassed. Agricultural fields in the vicinity of Ahansar wetland are surrounded by number of orchards. Leaching of insecticides, weedicides, fertilizers, have enriched the water body with nutrients leading to eutrophication.
The lake is under serious threat of encroachments and each year lake coastlines are filled up and reclaimed by vested interests for orchard and vegetable plantation. Recent survey conducted by investigator indicates that the wetland is fast turning into environmental nuisance owing to immense eutrophication due to ageing of water body with high Biological Oxygen demand (BOD).
The wetland is likely to meet the same fate as that of other valley lakes. Sewage from human habitations is directly poured into the wetland, thereby affecting its aquatic life. Run-offs from agricultural fields and untreated domestic sewage are the major source of plant nutrients in the wetland, thus rapidly disturbing its ecological balance.
Solid waste in the form of plastic bottles and tetra packs is directly flushed into the wetland. Excessive vegetation results in the depletion of oxygen that kills the fish and the underwater life.
Peripheral springs contributing to the wetland are used by locals for domestic chorus; there is gradual decrease in the water depth which is attributed to silt and garbage deposits in the wetland.
Present study reveals that the wetland is showing persistent rise in pollution level as shown by the higher concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus that has obviously sprouted the macrophytic vegetation.
During late autumn and winters most of the peripheral area dries up exposing marginal areas, giving a chance to the locals for conversion of the water into the land for paddy and other commercial activities.
This pattern of land use change has the potential to alter the composition and functional processes of wetlands by changing the hydrological regimes and sedimentation processes besides the flux of nutrient materials. Encroachments need to be removed and all old waterways flowing into the wetland be restored.
Our ancestors kept all these wetlands preserved for us. They were God fearing and eco-friendly, and though uneducated, they took care and preserved them. They were of the view that these natural gifts are for the posterity. They lived a simple life.
Their bathroom and kitchen wastes were never directly dumped into these precious lakes. Now things have changed due to blind materialism. Custodians have turned looters.
All types of wastes through drains and effluents are flowing into them. Weed infestation has posed number of problems particularly to fishermen community. Most of them suffer from number of water borne diseases.
Due to increase in water nutrients noxious weeds like Azolla are growing in thickets. No conservation plan has so far been formulated for their restoration. Strict actions should be taken against influential land grabbers. Demarcation of the lake and regular monitoring of water quality, biodiversity changes should be done.
Drudging for removal of excess aquatic weeds and noxious plants should be undertaken periodically. The municipal development authority should ensure that Ahansar wetland is taken by Mansbal Development Authority for its conservation.
In general the various strategies involved in management process of wetlands should aim at reducing the impact of current anthropogenic pressures, regulating inflows using water quality standards, creating barriers or green zones for protection of wetland ecosystems, treatment of point sources and non-point sources of pollution in the catchment area of wetlands, coordinated task force for monitoring and regulating the health of wetlands, installation of scientific treatment plants , illegal land that has been encroached upon should be retrieved, demolishing illegal embankments to restore natural water flow to the wetland and awareness campaigns in the neighboring areas to educate people particularly youth about the importance of environmental assets like wetlands.
The Wildlife Department should prepare an Integrated Management Plan (IMP) under the National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NCPA) and submit it to the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change for further necessary action. So, let us all pledge on this day to prevent heedless human intervention, else the wetland ecosystems will face a slow death.
Dr Showkat Rashid Wani, Senior Coordinator, Directorate of Distance Education, University of Kashmir.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.