BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has initiated process for demarcation of over 13,000 wetlands in the state for their effective conservation.
Acting on the directions of the Supreme Court, the Forest department has taken up ground truthing of a total of 13,667 wetlands which are spread over 2.25 hectares or more area. The wetlands have been identified by the Space Application Centre, forest officials said.
The apex court had in its order directed the state/Union Territory Wetland authorities to expeditiously complete the ground truthing and demarcation exercise of the boundaries of each of the wetlands identified by the Space Application Centre, Atlas (SAC, Atlas), 2021 and had set a three-month timeline for the same.
Following the Supreme Court judgement, the Orissa High Court also initiated a suo motu PIL in January to monitor the conservation of wetlands in the state. Accordingly, sources said, the state government engaged the Chilika Development Authority (CDA), responsible for the management and protection of Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon, as the nodal agency to implement the wetland conservation measures.
A senior CDA official said in the ground truthing exercise, they are verifying information about the wetlands, identified through satellite imagery, by visiting the site and collecting data on the ground physically to confirm their presence in one mobile software application.
The exercise was launched following sensitisation workshop of the collectors, divisional forest officers, line departments and those having ownership of wetlands such as Water Resources, Rural Development, Housing and Urban Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water departments, and Odisha Coastal Zone Management Authority, in February.
“The ground truthing will be completed soon after which the process for demarcation of each of these wetlands will be taken up,” the official said. The states and Union territories have been asked to update their present status on the ground truthing and demarcation of wetland boundaries and upload the data in the Save Wetlands Campaign portal.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) informed the Supreme Court earlier this week that the National Wetlands Committee will direct all states and Union territories to accord ‘top priority’ to comply with the order on completing ground truthing and demarcation of wetlands.