Wetland conservation: Issues and application Issues and Applications There are obviously a number of issues involved in evolving wetland conservation and monitoring programme. There are three major components. The first involves use of spatial technology tools viz, primarily use of remote sensing data to obtain actual location of wetland, inventory and classification of spatial data. The second issue relates to use of information on species distribution of birds, plants and socioeconomic issues related to the wetlands. The final issue involves integration of the data and information from the above two. Inventory The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India, conducted the first nation wide survey of wetlands of India in 1980’s. This was done by a survey whose results were summarized in Wetlands of India- A Directory (Anon, 1990) while this inventory is a good beginning; it is obvious that more was needed for conservation work. The IUCN has categorised India as one of the Asian countries needing more comprehensive national wetland inventory than is presently available, because a vast number of unclassified wetlands are facing conservation crisis. Thus a more serious and systematic inventory is required. SAC and MoE&F have conducted an inventory of indian wetlands on the basis of Visual interpretation of Satellite Data. They have mapped wetlands which are 50 ha or above in size. These maps convey the spatial extent of the wetlands but do not give any information about the exact nature of Fauna and Flora and water quality. Thus these maps are not sufficient to assign conservation values to the wetlands. Various smaller wetlands required mapping due to their biological importance. Thus maps of smaller scale and greater information regarding the biological communities sustained by these wetlands are essential for classification and evolving long-term conservation strategies. In the ongoing Inland wetland project digital image processing of select states and districts are being done on 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 scales (Table: 1) while fieldwork for biological parameters of wetlands is carried out for all the states.  Fig 2: Inland Wetlands of India Select Wetland of Kerala Classification The only serious attempts made to classify Indian wetlands on biological basis were done in late 1970’s and early 1980’s based on herbaceous and forested vegetations. Gopal and Krishnamurthy (1993) also suggested the classification scheme for Wetlands of South Asia based on vegetation types. But none of the above classifications took in to consideration other biological parameters like faunistic assemblages. Wetlands were also not taken into consideration while planning the protected area network for wildlife in India (Rodgers and Panwar, 1988), which was based on vegetation and land area. Thus there is a strong need to classify wetlands according to their biological components for conservation needs. A classification system has been proposed in the ongoing Inland wetland project for classification of wetlands according to their types and levels of turbidity and aquatic vegetation. This classification proved effective for classification of wetlands using satellite remote sensing data. |