DEGRADATION OF WETLANDS AND NEED FOR COMMUNITY LED WETLAND MANAGEMENT PLAN

 

Dr Ranjita Bania

Being in the high rainfall zone along with the two major river systems, the Brahmaputra and the Barak, the state of Assam possesses a mosaic of varying sizes of wetlands ranging from lentic to lotic habitats. These wetlands harbour a wide variety of aquafauna ranging from tiny rotifers, small fishes to the giant turtles inhabiting in its diverse habitats. Beel- the term used to coin the wetlands in Assam is unique in nature. They have a great role to play in preserving the earth’s fragile eco-system and are regarded as direct or indirect life supporting systems for millions of living beings having immense socio economic and cultural importance. But their values are often overlooked.

As per the report of National Wetland Atlas prepared under National Wetland Inventory and Assessment Project, Assam has 11178 wetlands with 764372 ha area spreading over the twin valleys covering around 9.74 percent of the geographic area. These wetlands are water bodies of diverse origin, size, shape, depth inundation pattern, ecological characteristics etc. which are under severe threat in the state now.

Most of the beels of Assam are located in the floodplains of the Brahmaputra and Barak, as such when the river continuously widens due to severe bank erosion, it becomes braided in many areas. As a result shallow channels sometime totally dried up during winter. Heavy siltation not only raised the river bed but also blocked connecting channel of beels, preventing auto-stocking of fish and auto-removal of floating macrophytes during monsoon resulting in extermination of wetland species. Over exploitation of resources mainly fish through indiscriminate killing by using pesticides and other illegal devices is a major threat to the already depleted fishery resources of floodplain lakes.

Another cause of great concern is the shrinkage of wetland area due to excessive anthropogenic activities. Conversion of wetland for human settlement and agricultural developments, construction of road, industries (brick kiln for instance), bridge over wetland and dam in the upstream of connected river, dumping of solid wastes, unsustainable levels of grazing and fishing activities will lead to substantial economic and ecological losses in the long term. The lake of boundary demarcation of the wetland habitats indirectly encourages the illegal encroachment as well as the insensitive approach to wetland values results in garbage dumping too.

Many of the wetlands even in the forest area near the oil fields are used as the dumping ground for the untreated oil effluents and the municipal wastes converting them to uplands, causing pollution as well, as in case of Upper Dehing Reserve Forest under Digboi Forest Division. 

Wetland used as Garbage dumping site at Upper Dehing Reserve Forest, Digboi

Besides, construction of oil pipelines near the wetland area or over it has also been observed in many places of upper Assam including Maguri-Motapung beel ignoring its ecological values. The leakage of crude oil from the oil pipe line adversely affects the aquatic biota including the wild animals using the water body for their biological need. The open cast coal mining in Ledo area of Tinsukia district has also been reported to deteriorate the water quality of the existing water bodies of nearby area causing them almost unproductive. All these unplanned shortsighted anthropogenic activities have resulted in rendering the eco-system integrity of many of the beels of Assam in peril.

Pollution from industry and agriculture is an additional impact on fish stocks. Assam has around 800 tea gardens leaving the gardens of small tea grower which form the bulk of tea industry in India. Many of these use chemical pesticides and herbicides which are drained to the nearby beels with the rainwater which again add to the cause for gradual depletion of the population of a good number of species which were fairly common in this part of the country not very long ago. Consequently, the aquatic biodiversity of the wetlands are already under severe threat and if immediate and effective conservation measures are not taken up, it is feared that many important aquatic species will be wiped out in near future.

The growing concern about the conservation of wetland biodiversity has led the search for more eco-friendly, sustainable and more effective as well as economic strategies. Identification of the key drivers of wetland change and adoption of suitable mitigation measures is the only way to combat the loss of wetland habitats. Therefore, probable natural and anthropogenic factors should be quantified and their adverse impacts should be shared with the common people to make them aware the needs of wetland conservation, thus making them a vital part of the conservation programme.

It cannot be denied that the Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010 issued by the Government of India (under the Environment protection Act, 1986) is not at all successful providing security to these threatened habitats which call for the need of revisiting the rule. The NGOs working in the field of wetland conservations is demanding special act for wetlands of Assam through formation of the State Authority of Wetlands highlighting the importance of riverine connectivity along with the Deepor beel Wetland Authority for conservation and management of the said unique water bodies. The issue has drawn the attention of scientific community not only in national but also in global level. International Union for Conservation of Nature’s initiative for Ecosystem for life - A India-Bangladesh Initiative has validated the fact including Deepor beel as their one of the study sites. Being a part of this programme through Aaranyak, the author raised the riverine connectivity and fisheries issues in various national and international platforms. The Aaranyak group headed by Partha J Das is constantly urging to clean up the connected channels of the beel to protect the Guwahati city from the havoc of artificial flood problem as observed during last couple of years which reached its peak in 2014. Nevertheless, deep understanding on wetlands is the call of the hour to meet the need for clean and measurable values and services they provide basically to inform and evaluate option for a development scheme.

At this summit, lack of ‘Wetland Management Plan’ is highly felt. The ownership issue of wetlands is not very much transparent in Assam and cannot be neglected while thinking of overall development. According to the available reports, only 430 numbers of beels are registered which can be leased out. The lease holder, in general uses the beel only for harvesting fish of their own interest without any investment or ranching. Thus, collection of a particular species may result in rapid declination of the said species. To prevent this type of monotony and to go for sustainable development of these habitats in the long run, one cannot refute the dearth of proper management plan in Assam. A community led multidisciplinal-multistakeholder wetland management plan owned by the community is the need of the day which can only revive our wetlands for longer duration with desired development. The successful implementation of this new concept in ground though seems very simple but needs constant effort with careful handling so as to deal with the sensitive issues of communities without harming the ethnicity. Special care should be taken to prepare the local community to implement the desired activities necessary for enrichment of wetland resources. Distribution of benefits from wetland management should also be ensured without any conflict in the locality.