Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary becomes 100th Ramsar site of India

• The Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district has been designated as India’s 100th Ramsar site.

• The Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary, which is also known as Surha Tal, is the 13th Ramsar Site of Uttar Pradesh.

Key facts about Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary:

• Located near Basantpur village, around 17 kilometres from the district headquarters, Surha Tal was declared a bird sanctuary by the Uttar Pradesh government in 1991.

• It is a freshwater wetland in the middle stretch of the Ganga River basin. It was originally formed from a meander of the Ganga and receives freshwater inflow through three channels. 

• The landscape in and around the Site is characterised by floodplains, extensive marshes, seasonally flooded areas and rice paddies. 

• During the summer months, when many smaller wetlands in the region dry out, the Site provides an important refuge for waterbirds. 

• The diverse waterfowl species recorded at the Site include the vulnerable common pochard (Aythya ferina) and the Indian river tern (Sterna aurantia). 

• The Site also supports a rich diversity of other species, including 221 plant species, 66 fish species, seven reptile species, and three amphibian species. 

• Notable fish include the vulnerable Wallago attu and Bagarius bagarius. The abundance of fish also attracts the vulnerable fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus), which uses the Site as a feeding ground. 

What is the Ramsar Convention?

• The Ramsar List is the world’s largest network of protected areas. There are over 2,500 Ramsar Sites, covering more than 2.5 million square kilometres.

• The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty signed by 173 countries to protect wetlands. 

• It is named after the city in Iran where it was signed, and it began with 18 countries in 1971.

• The convention is one of the oldest inter-governmental accords for preserving the ecological character of wetlands. Also known as the Convention on Wetlands, it aims to develop a global network of wetlands for the conservation of biological diversity and for sustaining human life.

• It is one of the largest international agreements, after the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 196 countries) and the UN climate agreement (UNFCCC, 197 countries).

• India ratified the convention on February 1, 1982.

• The first Site was the Cobourg Peninsula in Australia, designated in 1974. The largest Sites are Rio Negro in Brazil (120,000 sq km), and Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Queen Maud Gulf in Canada. These Sites each cover over 60,000 sq km.

• The countries with the most Sites are the United Kingdom with 176 and Mexico with 144. Brazil has the largest area with 267,000 square km under the Convention protection; Bolivia, Canada, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Russian Federation have also each designated over 100,000 square km.

What are wetlands?

• Wetlands are ecosystems where water is the primary factor controlling the environment and the associated plant and animal life. 

• Wetlands are land areas that are saturated or flooded with water either permanently or seasonally. Inland wetlands include marshes, ponds, lakes, fens, rivers, floodplains and swamps. 

• Coastal wetlands include saltwater marshes, estuaries, mangroves, lagoons and even coral reefs. Fish ponds, rice paddies and saltpans are man-made wetlands.

• Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.

• They are, in fact, a major source of water and our main supply of freshwater comes from an array of wetlands which help soak rainfall and recharge groundwater.

• Though they cover only around 6 per cent of the Earth’s land surface, 40 per cent of all plant and animal species live or breed in wetlands. 

• Wetland biodiversity matters for our health, our food supply, for tourism and for jobs. Wetlands are vital for humans, for other ecosystems and for our climate, providing essential ecosystem services such as water regulation, including flood control and water purification. 

• More than a billion people across the world depend on wetlands for their livelihoods – that’s about one in eight people on Earth.

• Every year, February 2 is observed as World Wetlands Day to raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for our planet. This day also marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in Ramsar, Iran.