India among top five nations with highest number of Ramsar Sites

By: Anshul Vipat

India has become the fifth nation with highest number of Ramsar sites in the world. Currently, as per the data released by the official website of Ramsar sites, India has 64 wetlands of international importance.

Recently, ten new Ramsar sites have been identified in India and have been declared as the wetlands of international importance. Those sites are- Koonthankulam Bird Sanctuary, Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve, Vembannur wetland complex, Vellode bird sanctuary, Vedanthangal bird sanctuary & Udhayamarthandapuram bird sanctuary in Tamil Nadu; Satkosia Gorge in Odisha; Nanda lake in Goa; Ranganathittu Bird sanctuary in Karnataka and Sirpur wetland in Madhya Pradesh . These new sites cover a total of 12, 50,361 hectares of land. Over the years, India has been consistently successful in increasing its count of Ramsar sites. With the addition of 10 new sites, India has been able to come a long way in preserving and conserving the environment effectively. PM Modi too in a tweet had hailed the recognition of 10 new wetlands as wetlands of international importance.

The chart given below shows the top 10 countries with maximum number or Ramsar sites in the world.

Source: www.ramsar.org

United Kingdom tops the chart with highest number of Ramsar sites in the world with 175. Spain stands on second position with 76, Sweden on third with 68, Australia on fourth with 66 and India stands on the fifth position with 64 Ramsar sites along with China. The increasing number of Ramsar sites in India displays the sincere efforts taken by the government in the conservation of wetlands and making them suitable for flora and fauna to flourish. In order to spread awareness about the importance of Ramsar sites and ensure maximum participation of the international community, 2^nd February is celebrated as World Wetlands Day. This day also marks the adoption of the convention on the wetlands in the city of Ramsar on 2^nd February 1971. The theme for the world wetlands day 2022 was “Wetlands Action for People and Nature.”