Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: During the ongoing Swachhta Special Campaign 3.0 from 2 October to 31 October 2023, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in association with state wetland authorities organised wetlands cleaning around different Amrit Dharohar sites such Ramsar sites across the country.
Various activities such as cleanliness drives, removal of weeds, taking pledge to protect wetlands and registration of Wetland Mitras were undertaken by state and UT wetlands authorities to spread mass awareness about the values and benefits of maintaining a healthy and clean wetland. This nation-wide event was conducted under the ‘Save Wetlands Campaign’ of the ministry.
Save Wetlands Campaign was launched by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as a “whole of society” approach for wetlands conservation on 2 February 2023 on the occasion of World Wetlands Day.
As per the National Wetland Decadal Change Atlas published by Space Applications Centre ISRO, Ahmedabad, a total of 2,31,195 wetlands have been mapped in the country. The total wetland area estimated is 15.98 million hectare including rivers, excluding paddy field areas that is around 4.86% of the geographic area of the country.
The ministry, by organizing regional workshops and number of programmes on the occasion of World Wetlands Day each year, creates awareness among the people and the stakeholders.
