Deeporbeel
- January 3, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Deeporbeel
Subject: Environment
Context: Community fishing has been banned in Deeporbeel as the only Ramsar site in Assam shrank by 35% from 1991 level.
Concept:
- DeeporBeel, a freshwater lake on the south-western edge of Guwahati, was designated a Ramsar site in 2002 for sustaining a range of aquatic life forms besides sustaining 219 species of birds.
- It sustains a major population of wild elephants from the adjoining Rani Reserve Forest and DeeporBeel Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Why it is shrinking?
- Wetland losing connectivity with the small local rivers like Kalmoni, Khonajan and Basistha flowing through Moral Bharalu channel.
- Expansion of the city and encroachment upon natural channel
- Community fishing has impacted its ecosystem.
Ramsar sites:
- A Ramsar site is a wetland designated to be of international importance under the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the Caspian Sea
- Aim of Ramsar sites is to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits
- With Tso Kar Wetland Complex in Ladakh as 42nd Ramsar site in India, it has highest number of Ramsar sites in South Asia.