The new draft Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2016, mooted by the Centre has come under attack and for good reasons. The proposed new regime has a few positive features, but even they are undermined by several glaring lacunae in them. For instance, the execution of the new rules has been left entirely to the discretion of the states disregarding their dismal past record in safeguarding ecologically sensitive ecosystems. The states have been given a free hand to identify wetlands, with chief ministers having a final say over the matter. No criteria have been spelt out for site selection. The existing Central Wetlands Regulatory Authority is also planned to be wound up to let states set up their own bodies.
The proposed system, thus, leaves the field open to exploitation by local vested interests - political as well commercial. This may endanger the preservation of some important wetlands. The tardy implementation of the empowered committee report on the protection of Western Ghats, the world's second richest biodiversity hotspot, bears out the pessimism on this count. Vested interests ultimately succeeded in keeping many key habitats out of the no-go zones.
Wetlands are essentially composite ecosystems which share the characteristics of both wet and dry environments. India has over 20,000 big and small wetlands, of which, for inexplicable reasons, only about 115 have been identified for coverage under the current national wetland conservation programme being run in 24 states. Of these, only 26 have been designated formally as wetlands under the Ramsar Global Convention on wetland conservation, which was adopted by over 100 countries in 1971 in the Ramsar town in Iran. Clearly, the attempts made so far to preserve wetlands have been far from adequate. The laxity on this count has already resulted in widespread encroachment of these ecosystems by the land mafia. Their undue exploitation has caused considerable contraction in their economic and environment value, including their role as carbon sinks to clean up the environment.
It seems odd that the new rules are sought to be promulgated at a time when even the existing rules, framed in 2010, which seem decidedly better than the new ones in several respects, have not been fully implemented. Besides, numerous petitions concerning the enforcement of the 2010 rules have been pending before the National Greens Tribunal (NGT). Besides, most states have not yet notified wetlands under the existing rules despite the NGT's decree to do so in a time-bound manner. Expecting the states to do better justice to the new rules would, therefore, be naïve. It is not yet too late for the Centre to revisit the draft new policy and amend it with the sole goal of disallowing any further destruction of wetlands or depletion of biodiversity sheltered by them.
