Urban wetlands are critical for water and climate security of Indian cities. Discuss with examples, and suggest a governance framework for their conservation.

Urban wetlands are the lakes, marshes and floodplains inside or next to a city. They supply water, absorb floods and cool the city around them. India's addition of Sukhna Wetland (Chandigarh) took its Ramsar tally to 103. The Union Environment Ministry described such sites as vital for water and climate security [1]. Yet most city wetlands are protected only on paper.

Role in water security

• Water source: Ramsar Criterion 9 recognises wetlands as sources of food and water [2]. City lakes such as Bhoj Wetland (Bhopal, Ramsar 2002) have long served their cities this way [2].
• Waste-water treatment: East Calcutta Wetlands (Ramsar 2002) [2] show that wetlands can clean a city's waste water through natural processes.
• Groundwater recharge: they act as recharge zones that support wells and borewells through the dry season.

Role in climate security

• Flood buffer: they act as a "sponge" that holds back heavy rain and so lowers urban flooding.
• Heat and carbon: they cool urban heat islands and store carbon in their soils.
• Biodiversity refuge: Sukhna is a wetland inside a city that gives birds a habitat amid built-up land [1].

Governance framework

• Legal: Ramsar listing alone does not protect a site. MoEFCC's 2020 guidelines say every Ramsar site must also be notified under the Wetlands Rules, 2017 (EP Act, 1986) [3]. Notification should have a time limit, with clearly mapped boundaries.
• Institutional: the State Wetlands Authority is chaired by the state environment minister [3]. Municipal bodies and development authorities should sit on it, because they control land use around the wetland.
• Planning: each wetland needs an Integrated Management Plan (IMP) covering its catchment [3]. It should be part of the city's master plan and drainage plan.
• Finance: NPCA funds only wetlands that have an IMP, and it had funded only 42 Ramsar sites by 2023 [4]. Funding should grow as the number of listed sites grows.
• Participation: citizen stewardship through Mission Sahbhagita [4], and livelihoods and eco-tourism through Amrit Dharohar [5].
• Accountability: a public dashboard showing which wetlands are notified, have an IMP and receive funds.

Urban wetlands are basic infrastructure that city water supply and climate resilience depend on. Cities should treat them as "blue infrastructure" through notification, plans, funding and citizen participation. This would help meet SDG 6 and SDG 11 and the duty under Article 48A to protect the environment.