Ramsar Site status to Indore's Yashwant Sagar

• 16 Aug 2022

Why in News?

• On August 13, 2022, 11 water bodies in five states were given Ramsar site status by the Union Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, including Yashwant Sagar in Indore district of Madhya Pradesh.

Key Points

• With this, there are four Ramsar sites in Madhya Pradesh now. Earlier Sirpur Talab of Indore district and Sankhya Sagar Lake located in Madhav National Park of Shivpuri district got the status of Ramsar site, whereas Badi Jheel (Bada Talab/Bhoj Tal) of Bhopal was already a Ramsar site.
• The 11 new Ramsar sites nominated by the Union Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change include four in Tamil Nadu, three in Odisha, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one each in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Including these, the number of Ramsar sites of international importance in India has gone up to 75. These wetlands sites are spread over an area of 13,26,678 hectares in the country.
• It is noteworthy that India is one of the contracting parties to sign the Ramsar Convention in Ramsar, Iran in 1971. India signed it on February 1, 1982. In the era of climate imbalance and change taking place in the world, the role of Ramsar site is very important in the environmental improvement of the world.
• During 1982 to 2013, a total of 26 sites were added to the list of Ramsar sites, however, during this period from 2014 to 2022, 49 new wetlands have been added to the list of Ramsar sites by the country.
• This year (2022) a total of 28 sites have been declared as Ramsar sites. Based on the date of the site mentioned in the Ramsar certificate, there are 19 sites for this year (2022) and 14 for last year (2021).
• Tamil Nadu has the maximum number of Ramsar sites (14), followed by Uttar Pradesh with 10 Ramsar sites.