Wetlands

Order of the supreme court of india dated 08/02/2017 regarding wetland conservation in india directs that the ‘brief documents’ with regard to the 2,01,503 wetlands should be obtained by the govt. Of india from the respective state governments. In line with that spirit the state govt. Of maharashtra, launched a mobile application on world wetland day (feb 02) with the objective of creating a database on all the wetlands in order to monitor their destruction and thereby facilitate conservation of wetlands across the state. An obvious need was to make available a mechanism, a sub-system that would enable gathering of such information (data) accurately and methodically. Typically, a panel of experts would do the job, sincerely. Or there are other skies to explore! An opportunity was seen here for participation from community – not only to ease out the work but to integrate the wisdom from various pockets of society, eventually effecting into a way of education. A pilot project was conducted in sindhudurg district with community participation, probably the first in our country. The “wetland brief documentation committee” formed on the order of the honourable district collector consisted of citizenry (folks) from local community as the backbone of this endeavour. A key outcome of involving students from high school and college was to do with providing them with first-hand experience on flora and fauna. Training talathi, tehsildar, formation and coordination among wetland brief documentation committee members was done by syamantak organization, dhamapur. A detailed report on the status of each wetland was submitted through the “wetland app”. The same report flagged-on the sites that are in need of restoration. After the completion of ground verification, the state government now have comprehensive data on the wetlands in sindhudurg district. The sindhudurg administration now have a factual position about the wetlands and can take measures for protection, restoration and conservation.