ABDUL WAHAB KHAN | NT
PANAJI: The newly-constituted Goa State Wetland Authority has formed a nodal agency to study a report prepared based on satellite remote sensing data, which has found 550 wetlands in the state.
The report has been prepared by the Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre, one of the major facilities of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The state for the first time has started extensive fieldwork to collect information on ground realities through the nodal agency comprising experts from the Goa State Biodiversity Board, the town and country planning department and the water resource department for identification and classification of wetlands in the state.
The 20-member authority headed by Chief Minister with the Forest Minister as vice-chairman that met for the first time on August 19 has resolved to start Identifying, conserving and using wetlands and their resources in the state.
Official sources said that “we have begun with the process for collection of ground-truth data for wetland sites that enables calibration of remote-sensing data and helps in interpretation and analysis of what is being sensed by the ISRO (centre).”
The environment department has constituted the wetland authority on August 14 as part of the requirement of the Role of Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010.
The authority also includes two subject matter specialists from Goa University G N Nayak and Nandkumar Kamat, representatives from civil society Bhiva Parab and Ishwar Kubal, and local stakeholder Ashish Karmali.
A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are also considered to have unique ecological features which provide numerous products and services to humanity. Ecosystem goods provided by the wetlands mainly include water for irrigation, fisheries, non-timber forest products, water supply and recreation.
This definition brings ponds, lakes, estuaries, reservoirs, creeks, mangroves and many more water bodies under the ambit of wetlands. The National Wetlands Atlas 2014, prepared by the Space Application Centre under the project ‘national wetland inventory and assessment’ has identified around 550 wetlands in Goa.
The important wetlands of Goa identified are Carambolim lake, Chorao Island, Selaulim reservoir, Anjunem reservoir and Mayem lake.
It is also estimated that Goa has total wetland area of 21337 hectare or 5.76 per cent of geographical area, if river/stream, intertidal mudflats, saltpans, reservoirs, tanks/ponds, waterlogged and mangroves are taken into account.
In terms of numbers, North Goa has highest 64.17 per cent of coverage in which wetlands are about 323. While for South Goa, the figure shows the least proportion (35.83 per cent) of the area under wetlands.
While the authority has been formed as per the 2010 rules, the ministry of environment, forests and climate change on May 31, 2016 has released the draft wetlands (conservation and management) rules, 2016 for public comments.
The new set of rules seeks to conserve and manage the wetlands across the country in a more effective way by replacing the Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules of 2010.
The activities prohibited in wetlands include reclamation, constructing permanent structures within 50 metres and setting up or expanding industries.
According to the draft rules, the power to identify and notify wetlands would be vested in the Chief Minister, who as chief executive of the state government as well as of the state wetland authority, will propose and notify wetlands after accepting or rejecting recommendations.