{"id":74472,"date":"2026-05-21T18:12:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=74472"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:14:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:44:57","slug":"maharashtra-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/21-05-2026\/maharashtra-wetlands","title":{"rendered":"Maharashtra Completes Documentation of Over 23,000 Wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/Biodiversity and Conservation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) has completed the <strong>documentation and Ground-truthing of Maharashtra\u2019s 23,415 wetlands.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is a Wetland?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A wetland is an ecosystem in which the land is covered by <strong>water\u2014salt, fresh, or somewhere in between\u2014either seasonally or permanently.<\/strong> It functions as its <strong>own distinct ecosystem.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>It includes water bodies <\/strong>such as lakes, rivers, underground aquifers, swamps, wet grasslands, peatlands, deltas, tidal flats, mangroves, coral reefs, and other coastal areas as well.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These wetlands can be classified into three segments such as <strong>inland wetlands, coastal wetlands, and human-made wetlands.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Wetlands in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India includes <strong>high-altitude wetlands <\/strong>of the Himalayas,<strong> floodplains<\/strong> of rivers such as Ganges and Brahmaputra, <strong>lagoons and mangrove marshes<\/strong> on the coastline, and <strong>reefs<\/strong> in marine environments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India has around<strong> 4.6% <\/strong>of its land as wetlands, <strong>99 Wetlands of India<\/strong> are under the <strong>List of Wetlands of International Importance called as Ramsar Sites.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India boasts the <strong>largest Ramsar site network in Asia<\/strong> and the <strong>3rd largest<\/strong> in the world in terms of number of sites.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Tamil Nadu<\/strong> holds the highest number of<strong> Ramsar sites in India in 2026<\/strong> with <strong>20 sites.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Importance of Wetlands<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Biodiversity Hotspots: <\/strong>Wetlands are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth, supporting a wide variety of plant and animal species.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Water Filtration and Purification: <\/strong>They act as natural filters, trapping and removing pollutants and sediments from water.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Flood Control and Water Regulation: <\/strong>Function as natural buffers against floods by absorbing and slowing down excess water during heavy rainfall or storm events.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Carbon Sequestration: <\/strong>The waterlogged conditions in wetlands slow down the decomposition of organic matter, leading to the accumulation of carbon in the soil.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Economic Benefits: <\/strong>Wetlands support various economic activities, including fisheries, agriculture, and tourism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><strong>Ramsar Convention<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is an international treaty aimed at conserving wetlands around the world. It was adopted in <strong>Ramsar, Iran, in 1971 <\/strong>and entered into force in<strong> 1975.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Countries that are parties to the convention commit to designating wetlands of international importance within their territories. These sites are referred to as <strong>Ramsar Sites.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Criteria:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>supporting vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered species or\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>threatened ecological communities or,\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>if it regularly supports 20,000 or more waterbirds or,\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is an important source of food for fishes, spawning grounds, and nursery.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>India<\/strong> has been a party to the Convention since<strong>1982.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/maharashtra\/maharashtra-completes-documentation-of-over-23000-wetlands\/article70999206.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) has completed the documentation and Ground-truthing of Maharashtra\u2019s 23,415 wetlands. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> What is a Wetland? <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> A wetland is an ecosystem in which the land is covered by water\u2014salt, fresh, or somewhere in between\u2014either seasonally or permanently. It functions as its own distinct ecosystem.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> It includes water bodies such as lakes, rivers, underground aquifers, swamps, wet grasslands, peatlands, deltas, tidal flats, mangroves, coral reefs, and other coastal areas as well.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/21-05-2026\/maharashtra-wetlands \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74472"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74475,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74472\/revisions\/74475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}