Wetland Conservation and Sustainable Development in Kerala, India

As in Kerala, comprehensive and scientific assessment of wetland areas in the rest of India is not yet done in spite of the wetland management programs and conservation rules existing in the country. Consistent datasets are available only for specific wetland types like mangrove forests. Inconsistencies in the national wetlands database are also due to changes in the assessment methodologies, which prevent the understanding of the changing nature of the wetlands (Prasad et al. 2002). The Ramsar Site Information Sheets (RSIS) of Indian Ramsar sites need to be updated by incorporating the present status. Details of the three Ramsar sites have not been updated yet since their designation in 2002 (Ramsar 2019d). Similarly, and despite the directives of the KCPWA 2008, the absence of proper datasets of the wetlands and paddy fields in Kerala has affected policy planning and protection measures and contributed to the degeneration of wetlands and paddy fields (Chitra 2016). WCMR 2017 stipulates that the inventory of all wetlands in Kerala should be complete within 1 year, but SWAK is yet to complete the wetland database (GoK 2019), which in turn affects adversely conservation measures in Kerala