Over 12,000 wetlands identified in TG

The Telangana State Wetland Authority meeting, which convened on Tuesday, reviewed the process for notification of wetlands in the State.

Minister for Environment, Forests, Science & Technology Konda Surekha chaired the meeting, and asked officials to expedite the process for the notification.

Officials confirmed ground truthing of 12,249 wetlands, which had been identified by the Space Applications Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which develops thematic atlases to map, manage, and monitor natural resources using satellite data.

Of the total, the extents of 4,023 wetlands have been demarcated so far. Joint surveys by the Irrigation and Revenue departments is underway for the remaining too. The minister insisted on accurate data from the district wetland authorities through coordination between the departments, and adherence to the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules 2017.

Draft notifications have been readied for major wetlands of Khammam, Jagtial and Nizamabad districts, apart from 28 other locations, officials informed. They will soon be notified in Gazette for public consultations, before final notification.

Proposals for declaring Manjeera Wildlife Sanctuary as international Ramsar Site came up for discussion during the meeting, and it was informed that the proposal is pending with Irrigation department for final opinion, after which it will be sent for approval to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Notified wetlands will be protected from encroachments, disposal of solid waste and release of untreated sewage. Principal Secretary, MoEF, Ahmed Nadeem, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests C. Suvarna, Chief Wildlife Warden Vinay Kumar and heads of other departments participated in the meeting, a statement from the Forest department informed.