Legal protection for 23,000 Maharashtra wetlands stuck in red tape despite NCSCM survey

Mumbai: Despite ground-truthing by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), the process of granting legal protection to more than 23,000 wetlands in Maharashtra remains mired in bureaucratic delays, information received under the RTI Act shows.

More than two decades after India prepared the satellite-based National Wetland Atlas, official notification of these ecosystems is still a far cry, environmental watchdog NatConnect Foundation said, citing information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Unless wetlands are formally notified and protected under law, these fragile ecosystems will continue to shrink under growing development pressure, said Nandakumar Pawar, director of Sagar Shakti.

“The scientific data already exists,” said B N Kumar, director of NatConnect Foundation. “What is missing is the political will to notify and protect these wetlands before they disappear.”

Kumar said it was alarming that not a single wetland in Maharashtra has yet been formally notified despite extensive scientific mapping. The data was prepared by the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, which compiled the National Wetland Inventory and Assessment (NWIA) using multi-date satellite imagery from 2006–07 in collaboration with state remote sensing centres and academic institutions.

However, the wetland survey and documentation prepared by NCSCM over the past two years will now be referred to district administrations for further verification before the notification process can proceed, according to the state’s Environment and Climate Change Department.

The department also informed NatConnect that district collectors would conduct additional ground verification, after which wetland lists would be placed in the public domain to invite suggestions and objections from citizens.

“This is shocking,” Kumar said. “Despite NCSCM’s detailed survey and documentation, the report is still being ping-ponged between agencies while wetlands continue to be encroached upon and destroyed.”

Ground-truthing, or physical verification, is the responsibility of district and taluka-level revenue authorities, since they maintain all land records, Pawar said. However, he alleged that government agencies — from district collectors to CIDCO, the Urban Development Department and the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority — do not appear serious about protecting wetlands and coastal areas by preparing the statutory 1:4,000-scale maps.

As a result, large-scale land grabbing through landfill of wetlands continues unchecked. The consequences are already visible, Pawar said, pointing to unseasonal flooding in parts of Uran. RTI information from revenue officials showed that the government had to pay nearly Rs 4 crore in compensation to flood victims in an area that had not witnessed inundation for more than two decades. Pawar said the payouts came from taxpayers’ hard-earned money and were largely avoidable had wetlands been protected.

Environmental organisation Vanashakti has been engaged in prolonged legal battles seeking implementation of the Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules, which require states to identify and notify wetlands for protection. At one stage, the Supreme Court directed governments to protect all major wetlands larger than 2.25 hectares.

Nationally, the scale of the issue is enormous. The Wetland Atlas identified 7,57,040 wetlands, of which 2,00,205 are larger than 2.25 hectares, yet only 1,315 wetlands have been listed on the Indian Wetlands Portal of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The portal currently recognises 98 wetlands as globally significant Ramsar sites.

Wetlands provide vital ecological services such as flood control, groundwater recharge, climate regulation, waste treatment and biodiversity habitat. Yet scientists estimate that around half of the world’s wetlands have disappeared over the past century due to industrial expansion, agriculture and urban development.

Maharashtra itself has a vast wetland network across its 35 districts. Satellite mapping shows that Mumbai suburban district has 412 wetlands, Mumbai city 63, Thane 1,895 and Raigad 1,760. Wetland-rich districts such as Pune, Nashik, Thane and Ahmednagar each account for more than five per cent of the state’s total wetland area.

Environmentalists warn that unless the notification process is expedited, many of Maharashtra’s wetlands could disappear even before they receive the legal protection promised under law.