 Hello viewers, today we are discussing on wetlands. What is wetlands? As per IUCN that is International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Nature resources, all submerged or water situated lands, nature or manmade, inland or coastal, permanent or temporary, static or dynamic, visited or non-visited which are necessarily have a land water interface are called wetlands. But Ramsar Convention used a broad definition of wetlands. Ramsar Convention was held in 1971 in the Iranian city Ramsar. As per Ramsar Convention definition, wetlands include all lakes and rivers, underground aquifers, swamps and marshes, wetland, wet grasslands, peatlands, oasis, estuaries, deltas and tidal flats, mangrove and other coastal areas, coral reef and all human made sites such as fish pond, rice paddies, reservoirs and salt pans. If you try to understand the importance of the wetlands, we have to go back to the Ramsar Convention again. In 1971, from 1971 on 2nd February every year, we are observing their world wetland day. If you take the themes of the last 10 years of wetland day, we will find that the wetlands are very closely related to the river basin management, biodiversity, climate change, forest tourism, water management, agriculture, sustainable livelihood, disaster risk reduction, sustainable urban future and many more things. So in many areas, the wetlands have been found to be very important. If you see the wetland condition of Assam, the wetlands in Assam are known with various local names such as Bilh, Pitoni, Doloni, Jolla, Duba, Hola, Gedang, Haur, etc. Bilh, Gedang, Haur are lake like water bodies, Pitoni, Doloni, Jolla are primarily swampy areas. Duba, Hola are degraded stream like water bodies but behave like an active river or a stream during flood season. Almost all the wetlands in the state commonly known as Bilhs. Wetland water, wetlands could broadly be divided into two categories that is lentic and lotic systems. Lentic wetlands are ponds, lakes, swamps, marshes, etc. In Assam, the Bilh, Pitoni, Doloni, Jolla, etc. are lentic systems. Lotic systems which refers to the running water like rivers and streams. Including the rivers and streams, some of the wetlands originated from abandoned sandals of rivers, behave like an active river in rainy season or lotic type. Here is the location of Assam state which is the only plain state in the midst of the Healy states of North East India. Here you will find the Loktee mountains of Bhutan, here you find the mountains of Ornasal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya. So water from all the states passed through Bhamaputra river and Assam valley and as a result what happened the many rivers and many wetlands have been formed in this state. In Assam as many as 5097 wetlands are there which size is more than 2.25 hectare and less than that size is 6081 which are scattered all over the plains of Bhamaputra and the Barak valley. The total wetlands area estimated around 763,372 hectare that is around 9.74% of the total geographical area of the state. Rivers and streams accounting 84% of the total wetlands and rest are lentic water bodies such as Bilh, Kedang, Haur etc. Handmade ponds, waterlogged areas, oxbow lakes are also included in lentic system. If you see the district wise distribution of wetlands you will find in Sunitpur district 83,427 hectares of wetland areas are there which accounts almost 11% of the total wetland areas of the state. On the other hand in Hila Gandhi only 2600 hectares of wetlands are there which is only accounts only 0.34% of the total wetland area of the state. So that way the wetland area and the number of wetlands varies from state to I mean district to district. In 1991 Assam remote sensing application centre without considering rivers and streams estimated the identify the wetlands in which it has been found that the Morygaon district having only 183 wetlands but see that total area covered the highest that is 11658 hectares. On the other hand Nogaon district accounts highest number of wetlands that is 379 and the total area covered is 11295.5 hectare. Number wise the Deemahasa having the lowest number of wetlands and the area wise the Hila Gandhi has the lowest area under wetland category. So that way the wetland varies from state district to district but see every district you will find some wetlands wetland areas. As per the Ramsar convention the wetland have been divided at 3 levels. In the first level that is inland wetland and the coastal wetland these two categories are there under this natural and manmade that is the level 2 that the inland wetlands have been divided into two categories natural and manmade and coastal wetlands also divided into two same two categories that is natural and manmade. The natural inland wetlands have been divided in at level 3 as lakes oxbow lakes cut of meanders, high altitude wetlands, riverine wetlands, waterlogged areas, rivers and streams. Manmade wetlands in inland wetlands covers that is the reservoir, barrages, tanks, ponds, waterlogged, salt pan etc. In the same way the natural coastal wetlands covers that is the legumes, creeks, sand beach, intertidal mud flats, salt marsh, mangrove, coral reefs etc. Manmade coastal wetlands includes the salt pan, aquaculture pond etc. If you see the scenario of Assam you will find that is again it could be divided into natural and manmade. Under natural category lakes and ponds, oxbow lakes, cut of meanders, high altitude wetlands, riverine wetlands, waterlogged wetlands then see the rivers and streams have been found. In the manmade wet category that is reservoirs and the barrages, tanks and ponds and waterlogged areas have been found. So the distribution pattern is like this that is altogether the state has 11178 numbers of wetlands which occupies 764372 hectares of land. If you see the distribution pattern of the wetlands you will find a different picture say for example, here covers the 3 districts Moriga, Hozai and Noga district. So this part is falls under Moriga district, this part is in Noga district, this part in Hozai district. In Hozai district the number of wetlands are very few and also the border area of the Noga district you will find the minimum less number of wetlands it is because it is very close to the hilly area of Kerviangelo district. And here the Hozai district is mostly fall in the rain-chill zone of the state. So therefore the number of wetlands are very few here but the condition of the wetlands is very much there in Moriga district where there are lot of rivers many rivers are there fields are there, swampy areas are there. So the distribution pattern is not uniform throughout. The wetlands of Assam could be classified broadly into 5 categories depending on their shape. The first category is the compact type where the land-based ratio is almost same. And another type is fragmented or the discrete type, there may be few more few water bodies which have been linked up with some active channels which maintain the water quality and other quality of the wetland all the water bodies. And therefore all these units, all these water bodies could be taken as one unit. So this type of wetland could be called as the fragmented wetland. And this is the oxbowl lake, this is actually this is the river and this oxbowl lake has been is the cut-off meander of this river and this type of wetlands are many in the entire Assam. The linear type of wetlands have been found where that is the river Abandon which originals channels. So this type of linear type of wetlands are quite, I mean this linear type of wetlands are a large in number in entire state. Then say this irregular type of wetlands have been found normally with the areas where which is surrounded by the helitrax. So this is the depressed area surrounded by the helitrax and shore areas have been some looks very irregular that is the shoreline is very irregular in shape. And if you see that is the distribution pattern of the wetlands in Assam you will find the linear type of wetlands found to be the highest actually it is depend on the three districts a study of in three districts. Compact pattern is next to that oxbowl lake and discrete and irregular pattern of wetlands have been found like this. So that this is the size category that is the less than 50 hectares of wetlands have been found in large number. If the size increases the wetland number is also increases accordingly. Second important aspect is this the as you go away from the rivers that is most of the wetlands have been somewhere related to the rivers adjacent rivers. As you go away from the rivers then you will find that is the number of wetlands have been decreased within 400 meters of from the rivers the wetland number is more that is 34 percent more than 34 percent. And see as you go away that is 400 to 800 800 to 1200 meters if you go away from the rivers then see the number of wetlands decreases. So as a result what happened the 77 percent of the wetlands have been found within 2 kilometers of the rivers in the state. And 88 percent of the wetlands found within 3 kilometers from the rivers. So here you see that if you take the satellite images any of the satellite image of any of the districts of Assam you will find the wetlands like this wetlands are distributed like this. These are all wetlands these are oxbowlex clear oxbowlex and this is the swampy area this area is a swampy area and see you will can find you can see that so many numbers of wetlands have been distributed all the wetlands. This is the Brahmaputra river and the white patches are nothing but the sandy shore areas and see the irregular type of shoreline that is the irregular shoreline that is the irregular type of wetland is found in the state in the in the midst of the helitrax. And then see this is the clear example of the oxbowlex and also that this is these are the linear type of wetland these are the linear type of wetland. These are the old channels you can see the it is called as the paleo channels that means these this was at one point of time it was an active channel but now it has been degraded there is no stagnant water is there either it has been converted to agricultural land or it is covered by some other visitation. So like that see the wetland ecosystem in Assam is basically depend on many factors that is it contains the both inorganic and organic materials. The primary producers ranges from the high phytoplankton to the macrophytes. Most conspicuous producer are the free floating and rooted aquatic angiosperm in shallow water. Primary consumers are various zoo plankton. Second order consumers are small fishes, frogs, rotifers etc. Predatory birds and the large fishes are the top carnivores in the ecosystem. So if you why this thing wetlands are reaching biodiversity to understand that thing that see we have to see the structure of the wetlands. See the wetlands this area is always under water this area is intermittent it is a occasionally submerged and this area very close to the water body and see it gets this area this soil of this area gets get ground water constantly from the wetlands. So as a result what happen we find three different zones where three different types of visitation and depending on the visitation different type of aquatic plants and aquatic animals have been found in three different areas. See for example this area that is the deeper area you will find the free floating submerged plants, submerged plants, floating plants etc. In this part you will find the emergent plants and in this part salt grass, tall grass and the woody forest you will get it. So therefore as a whole the wetland ecosystem become very rich in biodiversity. So these are some of the examples of some submerged plants different type of submerged plants are just some of the floating plants are there this is the water lily which is very common in the wetlands of Assam. These are also very common here that is the ural ferrox it is locally called as mochana it is a plant is a floating plant that is the leaves are just like lotus and see from this seeds have been extracted which is sold in the market it is a good market in the entire country. Then see the water hyacinth that is of course the water hyacinth are now playing a adverse role in wetland productivity of the wetland because see the water hyacinth does not allow the penetration of the sun rays to each bottom level the wetland bottom. So therefore the productivity of the feces and other aquatic life is decreased to a great extent and this is the you know if you from the water body to the shore area you will find the varieties of plants grown there. And see if you see the role of the wetlands on the human in this thing livelihoods support the livelihood you will find that see the livelihoods support it provides the wetlands provides the livelihoods support to the people of the rural areas. This is the agriculture the wet agriculture which is practiced in almost entire state this is the rural poor they have collected the feces from here and it is a good supplement of the protein. And this is the community fishing this is the unique things in a some that is particularly the eve of mark view which is a mark view is a festival. Before the festival this community fishing is normally practiced and see this is the unique thing that see the many tourists get attracted for this to see the community fishing in the wetlands of a some. So like that see this wetlands provide the livelihoods support to the people not only that this wetlands also provides the grazing household animals that is the provide the opportunities for grazing household animals. Then see the children can learn this is the swimming driving and this is they can go for recreation like this. Then also the other purposes for drinking purpose for batting and for washing clothes the wetlands water have been used all over the state. Then see if you see the biodiversity here you see this is the common dark you know wetlands are quite often it is called as a dark factory. Because normally what happen in a some that is that is the many of the dark varieties of birds the birds of dark varieties they come from the Siberia and Tibetan region. And from they take shelter in the wetlands and see for that they stay here for not less than 3 months and see they lay eggs here they make nest there here. So therefore the wetlands are quite often called as the dark factory this is the local dark but see here you see in Khajiranga this is from Khajiranga these are the rhinos and these are the buffaloes and the other animals also deer is also there. So like this is the varieties of the animals is supported by the wetlands this is the migratory birds that one can see almost in all not only in Khajiranga in other wetlands also one can see this thing this scenario. This tall grass and the short grass and the water body these three are the unique combination for the rhino habitat. So this is that a tall grass it is taller than the human being that is also this how the wetlands have been used by the wild animals and also domestic animals. How the wild animals are using the water bodies and see the how common birds have been seen in the wetlands. So it is very much clear in almost all the states all the districts of Assam. Then see the if you see the bird variety let us see these birds are picking up food from the edges and the fringe areas of the wetlands all these are migratory birds these are this in a greater adjutant stock that is an endangered species. It is also supported by the wetlands these are the migratory birds coming from the Siberia and Tibetan region these are the common birds in the Asiatic wetlands. So like that see the it here it made a rich biodiversity zone. This is one of the unique thing of course it is not seen in Assam it is in Manipur Loktoge Lake that is these are all floating plants. So this floating plants is becoming so thick that see that one can construct the dwelling houses here. So these are called fumdis and on the fumdis the huts have been this this type of the fishermen have made this type of huts and see this is the unique thing in the Loktoge Lake. So this for this also the many tourists used to come. Now coming to the fish fish condition this is fish production condition of the state. Let us say the bill water of Assam is highly productive scientifically it has been already proved. Naturally Assam bill water can produce 100 kg of fish per hectare without taking any development measure but the water bodies of the rest of the country cannot produce more than 79 kg of fish per hectare per year. In bill fish productivity can be raised up to 1500 kg per hectare per year. It is also scientifically proved the Assam importing fishes from states like Kanpur Produce and UP as many as 700 trucks carrying fishes to this from these states every week. So local fish sold in Assam market at 3 times more than the price of imported fish. Around 90% of the people of Assam as well as the North East India are fish eaters. The mainly Siddil cast and Siddil type people are involved in the fish catches and fish business. But unfortunately what happened the fishing gears are not scientific not efficient to catch the bottom mud fishes from the bottom mud. Here the wetland condition in the city area it is the Guwahati area and say one Ramsar site is very important wetland is there that is the poor bill that is a Ramsar site. The other wetlands in the city are degraded to a great extent. This Ramsar site is also degrading day by day this is the poor bill. And say this poor bill this light blue color indicates that is it is turbidity is very high that means the solid waste which have been carried by the rivers and the runoff surface runoff is deposited in the wetland and thereby the squeezing the thereby the reducing the wetland area of the of the poor bill. So why the poor bill is so important that see that if you see the plant species the 14, 14 free floating hydrophiles are there 18 submerged suspended hydrophiles are there 10 submerged encode hydrophiles 9 floating lived encode hydrophiles 5 floating soot encode hydrophiles 29 emergent encode hydrophiles 36 swarms marsh and wetland hydrophiles are there. So that way the so many varieties of species so many species I mean plant species are there that see which enrich the quality of the the poor bill. But on the other hand if you see the land use map of this wetland 9 if you compare from 1977 to 2014 you will find this the how much of pressure it it bears that means how the encroachment is going on or the settlement is developed surrounding the wetland. So this red patches showing the built up area so the red is very coming very close to the wetlands see now you see that it by 2014 almost all sides have been covered by the wetland I mean built up area from which the lot of waste solid and liquid waste have been released to the wetland and thereby the quality of the water is degraded day by day. But on the other hand the same type of wetland found in the rural areas have not affected that way as the poor bill is deteriorated. This is the scenario of Khajironga national park here you see the tall trees the grassland and the wetland these three are geographical unit actually is a best combination for the rhino habitats. So here these wetlands are also affected because of the fringe areas where that is the agricultural lands have been extending towards the wetland then see the built up areas are there tea gardens are there from which the agricultural waste and the tea garden waste have been released to the water bodies and thereby in the fringe areas the water quality of the depot Khajironga national park is deteriorating day by day. Let us see according to WWF India that is the wetlands of India has been deteriorated due to the loss of vegetation, selenization, excessive inundation, water pollution in invasive species, excessive development of the road and building etcetera. But if you see the why the some wetlands of Assam have been deteriorated you will find the inaugurating bottom deposit. Let us see that is the sediments because of the deforestation and other activities the sediments have been carried by the rivers to the wetland and it has been deposited at this bottom. Organic bottom deposit that is the water hyacinth and other plants which have been after decompose it has been deposited at the bottom of the wetland. The blockade of the feeder channel it will be discussed later and unscientific construction of engineering structures like say for example, roads railway lines then and which cause lot of degradation that is cause deterioration of the water of wetlands. Then see the encroachment for different development of different infrastructures and cultivation in the marginal areas also cause deterioration of the wetlands. The release of the industrial and urban waste is very dangerous to the wetlands there are some pictures it is shown here. Here see the with the building have been constructed in the wetlands the art building is going on the wetlands the how that the garbage the with urban and the solid waste industrial waste have been dumped in the wetlands you can see it from here. The fishing and fishing methods and gears is also responsible for the deterioration of the wetlands. The poor governance as of now the government in Assam the four different types of four different departments control the wetlands. So the all the wetlands some of the wetlands are found under the revenue department some wetlands found under forest department some are for fishery development corporation some in the under fishery development. So this is it becomes a no man's business. So as a result the wetlands have been deteriorated day by day. This is the condition of the feeder channel normally what happened you know that is in the during the gravity fishes when they like to lay their eggs they cannot lay their eggs in the fast flowing rivers. So therefore the most of the gravity fishes enter the wetlands through the feeder channels this is the wetlands. So here they the fishes lay eggs and as the fishes when grown up it goes back to the river again some of the fishes remain there thereby the auto stocking process of the fishes in the wetlands is continued. But see because of the blockade of the wetlands because of the construction of roads railways and the embankments and the agricultural practices in the wetlands in the dry season. So ultimately deteriorates the quality of the feeder channel or in virtually the links between the wetlands and the rivers have been cut off because of the death of the feeder channels. So the feeder channels are quite often called as the lifeline of the lifeline of the wetlands. But now these have been re-linked and therefore the wetland quality has been deteriorated day by day. Then see the as a solution that is a desiltation could be carried out and see the desiltation works in depot build this is a few pictures of the desiltation works in depot build. Let us see the how this in the sediments have been removed from the depot build and it has been dumped in the surrounding areas. So that way the roads have been constructed like embankments have been constructed like this the plantations have also been made thereby the fodder encroachment could be stopped and also the water depth could be maintained. So that way the some of the wetlands could be easily developed in the state and this is the unique picture of that is the natural process by which the water quality of the wetlands could be purified. This is from nature park of Kolkata. So here the dark drain water have been entered in this tank is a settlement tank where the sediments have been deposited there at the bottom. And this floating meters have been removed from this point. Then see from the shallow channel that is water goes to the next tank here that is well it moves to the next channel this sunlight can penetrate to its bottom thereby it purifies the water. So that way it goes to the next channel where some fishes have been kept these fishes are not for human consumption. It is it is for to purify in these fishes have been used to purify the water and also to monitor the quantity of oxygen in the water body. So then the water is purified to some extent then it goes to the next tank where some of the submerged plants have been there which absorb the grease and other oily substances from the water body. And thereby it is to some extent the grease and water oily substance have been removed and then it goes to the next tank where the this water hyacinth have been kept this water hyacinth the roots of the water hyacinth can absorb the heavy metals like mercury lead etcetera. So that way the by nature process the water has been purified and you will get the crystal clear water here and see it has been released to the in the fish spawns where the fishes have been this in cultured here and see the more than 100 families of them in the surrounding area supported by this fish spawns. So that this is the success story in our country. So that way we can develop. So many of the countries have developed the constructed wetlands. So this is some of the pictures have been taken from internet and see this is the thereby they have improved the condition of the wetland the one unique example is there the constructed wetland in Bharatpur India for to Bharatpur many tourists used to come because Bharatpur is known to the world as a bird national park. So like this in Malaysia Putraja wetland is also a very famous constructed wetland. So these are the acts and the legislation to conserve the wetlands in our country much the main problem lies here the enforcement of the law that is the slackness in enforcing the law ultimately cause the deterioration of the wetland. We have the provisions but see we are not enforcing it properly. In a sum that see we can develop the wetland based activities sum the sum of the wetlands could be preserved as the biodiversity conservation pool. Some of the wetlands could be used as the environmental quality control machine and many of the wetlands could be developed into fisheries and the sum of the wetlands where the endanger species are there order rear species are there blurtz and animals are there. So these wetlands could be and scenic beauty is also there these wetlands could be developed as two response and thereby we can earn lot of people I mean earn lot of money and also we can employ lot of people in the wetland based industries. So how to conserve let us see the wetlands should be classified scientifically safe wise size wise area wise location water quality biodiversity richness etcetera. Then there is a strict conservation strategy needed for wetland rich in biodiversity then next thing is the sum of the wetlands could be developed as a tourism promotion. Some wetlands should be developed as fisheries and all wetlands should be bring under single management authority then only we can expect some wetland based I mean economic development in the state thank you.