Telangana hasn’t identified a single wetland so far

HYDERABAD: Not a single wetland has been identified in Telangana till date though the State Wetland Authority was constituted in 2019. In fact, the lethargic pace at which the SWA has been functioning can be gauged from the fact that its first-ever meeting was held only two years after its formation, on December 29, 2020, as per the data submitted by Telangana government to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

In August 2020, the NGT had directed a joint committee of the secretary and chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to formulate a consolidated report on the status of compliance of all the States with regard to the Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017. The report was recently submitted to the NGT and as per the same, not a single wetland has been identified in the State yet. It just mentions that the “State is in the process of collection of data”.

The Wetlands Rules, 2017, mandates that the SWA must prepare a list of all the wetlands in the State within three months of publication of the rules, prepare a list of wetlands to be notified by the State government in six months and develop a comprehensive digital inventory in a year. Further, according to the report, not a single water body from Telangana has been covered under the National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA) scheme of the Central government.