Sindhudurg training state bodies to document wetlands

Nagpur: Sindhudurg has become the country’s first district to have successfully documented and mapped wetlands, following a judiciary order. Engaging community participation in the eight-month long process, the district is now training bodies of other districts in the state to replicate its documentation model.
While hearing a public interest litigation filed by NGO Vanshakti for preservation of wetlands, the Bombay High Court had directed the state government to carry out wetland mapping in all the districts. In June last year, the government had informed the court that it was taking up a pilot project in Sindhudurg for mapping wetlands.
The district administration approached the team of local organization Syamantak, which suggested engaging community participation in the documentation and mapping process. “We advised the collector to rope in botanists, zoologists, environmentalists and other experts to form the Sindhudurg Wetland Brief Documentation Committee. School and college students were also involved as volunteers to facilitate education through sustainable development,” said taxonomist Balkrishan Gawde, an expert member of the committee.
Involving citizens had another benefit too. “Conducting mapping through community is an effective way to save public money. If this model is implemented across the state, the government can save crores,” said Sachin Desai, who is running Syamantak’s study centre for experiential learning in Dhamapur.
The committee completed the task of mapping 57 wetlands in the district in about eight months. “We became the first district in the state to submit wetland documentation. Following this, the court directed the state to see how many districts can be undertaken simultaneously for wetland mapping. The momentum was such that Syamantak started receiving calls of administrative officials from different districts,” said Yogesh Koli, an assistant professor in zoology and a committee member.
After setting-up a unique participatory for the state, the committee is now training other districts on conducting wetland mapping. “We currently training officials from different districts of Konkan including Ratnagiri, Raigad, Palghar and also Thane. We are also helping the administrations in identifying local expert members for the committee,” added Desai.
Apart from this, the committee has recommended to survey five new wetland sites.
Sindhudurg will soon be releasing the first volume of magazine ‘Sindhudurg — Land of Wetland’, the first-of-it-kind in the country. The district planning and development council (DPDC) is giving financial support to the magazine through the forest department.
The magazine has detailed information about the findings of documentation process.

- Sindhudurg first district in country to conduct wetland mapping through community participation
- District set up a model for other local bodies, now training them to replicate the same
- Key findings of wetland documentation:
- 485 species of flora reported in 57 wetland sites in Sindhudurg
- 154 bird species, 39 butterfly and 21 odonate species reported
- Nine threatened bird species reported in Dhamapur lake
- 3 nearly threatened, 1 vulnerable and 1 critically endangered bird specie reported at Pendur lake
- Total 129 violations are reported in the 57 wetland sites of Sindhudurg
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