Deepar Beel

Deepar Beel

Subject – Environment

Context – On August 25, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified the eco-sensitive zone of Deepar Beel Wildlife Sanctuary on the southwestern edge of Guwahati.

Concept –

• Deepor Beel is located to the south-west of Guwahati city, in Kamrup district of Assam, India.
• It is a permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River, to the south of the main river.
• It is a wetland under the Ramsar Convention which has listed since November 2002, for undertaking conservation measures on the basis of its biological and environmental importance.
• Considered as one of the largest beels in the Brahmaputra valley of Lower Assam, it is categorised as a representative of the wetland type under the Burma monsoon forest biogeographic region.
• It is also an important bird sanctuary habituating many migrant species.
  • Some of the unique migratory bird species that can be spotted here are the white-eyed pochard, the grey lag goose, Baer’s pochard and the gadwall, a dabbling duck.
• It sustains a major population of wild elephants from the adjoining Rani Reserve Forest and DeeporBeel Wildlife Sanctuary.
• The wetlands expand up to 30 sq. km in summer and reduces to about 10 sq. km in winter.
• The wildlife sanctuary measures 4.1 sq. km within this wetland.
• Mora Bharalu, an abandoned 13.5-km-long channel of the river Bharalu, which flows through the city, and the Basistha-Bahini rivers are the inlets that carry rainwater and untreated sewage to Deepor Beel.
• The Rani and Garbhanga hills, the habitat of the Asiatic elephants in the southern side of the beel, are part of this ecosystem.

Eco-­sensitive zone notification

• The wetlands have for decades been threatened by a railway track — set to be doubled and electrified — on its southern rim, a garbage dump and encroachment for human habitation and commercial units
• The notification specified an area “to an extent varying from 294 metres to 16.32 km” as the eco-sensitive zone with the total area being 148.9767 sq. km.

What does Eco-Sensitive Zone mean and what is its purpose?
Eco-Sensitive Zone means the fragile area that exists within 10 kilometres of protected areas like National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. The purpose of marking an Eco-Sensitive Zone is to create a kind of shock-absorber around the protected areas.
Who declares the Eco-Sensitive Zone around protected areas?
The Eco-Sensitive Zone around protected areas are declared by the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India.

Prohibited
Commercial mining, stone quarrying, crushing units, setting up industries that cause pollution, establishment of hydro-electric projects, commercial use of firewood, solid waste disposal or wastewater disposal and many other activities are prohibited or banned around ESZ.