Farmers Movement Archive

10 waterbodies in Delhi put on priority list for notification

NEW DELHI: In a bid to legally protect the city’s diminishing wetlands, Delhi Wetland Authority has prioritised 10 such waterbodies for notification. While five of the wetlands are natural, the others are man-made. Earlier last year, the authority had made a list of 1,040 wetlands, including ponds and lakes, and decided to notify them under Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017. The wetlands are owned by 16 organisations, such as Delhi Development Authority, revenue department, municipal corporations, Delhi Jal Board and forest department. The 10 prioritised wetlands include Najafgarh Jheel, Tikri Khurd lake, Bhalswa lake, Sanjay Lake and Welcome Jheel. The area of the waterbodies, many of which are braving pollution and encroachment, varies from 1.8 to 1,400 hectares. Officials said they had expedited the process and were working on the final draft notification. Delhi’s environment department is currently preparing a brief of each wetland. This would be followed by a draft notification to invite suggestions of the public, after which the Centre would notify them. “We prioritised these 10 wetlands based on factors like presence of biodiversity, richness, feasibility, etc. Once notified, the land-owning agency will prepare the action plan to maintain and, if required, rejuvenate the wetlands. So far, we have prepared the briefs of over 600 of the 1,040 wetlands. The draft notification has been made for some of the prioritised 10 wetlands. Since this is a tedious task, we have roped in third parties, like NGOs, to help us with the documentation and surveys,” said Dr KS Jayachandran, member secretary, Delhi Wetland Authority. Dr Madhu Verma, chief economist at World Resource Institute, Delhi, who is heading the technical committee on wetlands, said, “There is a lot of difference between the condition of these wetlands on ground and on paper. This makes it a huge task. That’s why we prioritised 10 wetlands based on their size, location, biodiversity, etc. We are expediting the process and hope they will be notified this year.” The Union environment ministry had in 2020 issued guidelines on implementing the Wetland Rules, 2017. Under these rules, a brief document was to be first prepared on each wetland with information like demarcation of boundaries, digital maps, coordinates, etc. Notification of a wetland can provide legal protection to the waterbody and prohibit acts like dumping of waste, discharge of untreated effluents, encroachment, etc.

The Times of India

2022-01-18

Delhi