NEW DELHI: A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking direction that all wetlands of size less than 2.25 hectares be notified and protected under the provisions of the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017.
The application for direction has been filed in the pending matter relating to the conservation of wetlands and other water bodies also, including ponds, tanks, canals, creeks, and water channels.
The applicants, Manu Bhatnagar and Vikrant Tongad, said that the fast shrinking of water bodies, including wetlands, such as ponds, lakes, oxbows, johads (traditional rainwater harvesting wetlands), tanks, channels, streams, reservoirs etc., is posing an unprecedented grave danger to the very drinking water needs of millions of citizens across the country, endangering the water security and very survival of countless citizens.
"It is not only vital but an urgent, emergent, pressing need to preserve, protect and augment all water bodies, including but not limited to wetlands, whether natural or man-made, so as to be able to provide and fulfil the basic drinking water needs of millions of citizens across the country, in the least, ” stated the application.
It added that water bodies such as ponds, lakes, oxbows, johads, tanks, channels, streams, reservoirs etc. are constantly and alarmingly being encroached across the country as they are not recognised and recorded in the revenue records/maps.
The plea prayed that all water bodies, whether natural or man-made, at their highest flood level, be legally protected and wetlands, including seasonal or whose water-spread shrinks in the lean season or otherwise, be recorded in the revenue records/maps at their highest spread, during a normal monsoon.
The plea referred to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti's First Census Report on Water Bodies, published in April 2023.
"The census enumerated a total of 24, 24, 540 water bodies across the country, out of which 97.1 per cent (23, 55, 055) are in rural areas and only 2.9 per cent (69, 485) are in urban areas. (O)ut of 24, 24, 540 enumerated water bodies, the information on 'water spread area' has been reported in respect of 23, 37, 638 water bodies. Out of these 23, 37, 638 water bodies, 72.4 per cent of water bodies have a water spread area less than 0.5 hectares, whereas only 3.1 per cent of water bodies have a water spread area more than 5 hectares, ” said the plea.
In 2017, the Supreme Court had directed the preparation of brief documents of 2, 01, 503 wetlands by the states and the protection of these wetlands under Rule 4 of the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010.