Wetlands, coasts and seas: Ramsar sites, mangroves, reefs and marine species

Detail

1. What a wetland is

• A wetland is land covered by shallow water. The water may stay all year (permanent) or only for part of the year (seasonal).
• Main types:

Type	What it is	Indian example
Marsh	Low, wet land with grasses and reeds	Pallikaranai Marsh, Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
Lake	Inland body of still water	Loktak (Manipur), Wular (J&K)
Lagoon	Salty or brackish water cut off from the sea by a sand bar	Chilika (Odisha)
Mangrove	Salt-tolerant forest in river deltas and estuaries on tropical coasts	Sundarbans (West Bengal), Bhitarkanika (Odisha)
Floodplain	Flat land beside a river that floods each year	Upper Ganga River stretch (Uttar Pradesh)
Paddy field	Man-made seasonal wetland	Flooded rice fields across India

• Area in India (NCERT): 3.9 million hectares, with about 70% under paddy. This figure is old. Newer national wetland atlas figures may differ.
• Why wetlands matter:
• they act as sponges: they soak up floodwater and refill groundwater
• they clean water by trapping silt and pollutants
• they are breeding and nursing grounds for fish and birds. Protecting breeding and nursing habitats is one of NCERT's main conservation steps.

2. Ramsar Convention

• Ramsar Convention: an international treaty to protect wetlands of international importance.
• Signed at Ramsar, Iran (Caspian Sea coast), on 2 February 1971. That date is now World Wetlands Day.
• Came into force in 1975.

• It is older than the Earth Summit (1992) and the CBD, and it is separate from both.

• India joined in 1982. Its first two sites, Chilika Lake (Odisha) and Keoladeo Ghana National Park (Rajasthan), carry the designation date 1 October 1981. They were formally declared in 1982 [4].

• Domestic law: the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules 2017. They are framed under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986. Under them, each state sets up a State Wetland Authority, which lists, notifies and manages the wetlands in that state.

3. India's Ramsar network

• How fast it grew:
• 26 sites in 2014 → 101 in 2026 [3]
• The official list on 21 April 2026 had 99 sites in 26 States/UTs, covering 13,84,181 ha (about 13.8 lakh ha) [4].
• 99th: Sheikha (Shekha) Jheel Bird Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh. With it, Uttar Pradesh had 12 sites [4][11].
• 100th (June 2026): Surha Tal, the Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary in Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh. It is rich in migratory and resident birds [2].

• 101st (August 2026): Glaw Lake, the first Ramsar site in Arunachal Pradesh. It is a freshwater lake in the Eastern Himalayas, inside the Kamlang Tiger Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary. Over 150 tree species and 49 orchid species have been recorded there [3].

• India has the most Ramsar sites in Asia.

• States with the most sites (list of 21 April 2026, before the 100th and 101st):

Rank	State	Sites
1	Tamil Nadu	20 [4] (18 in August 2024 [12])
2	Uttar Pradesh	12 [4]; 13 with Surha Tal [2]
3 (tie)	Bihar, Odisha, Punjab	6 each [4]

• Largest sites by area (2026):

Site	State	Area (ha)
Sundarban Wetland (2019)	West Bengal	4,23,000, the largest [4]
Vembanad-Kol Wetland (2002)	Kerala	1,51,250 [4]
Chilika Lake (1981)	Odisha	1,16,500 [4]

• Smallest sites: Renuka Wetland (Himachal Pradesh) and Vembannur Wetland Complex (Tamil Nadu), 20 ha each [4].
• Coastal and marine Ramsar sites to remember:
• Bhitarkanika Mangroves, Odisha (2002; 65,000 ha) [4]
• Point Calimere, Tamil Nadu (2002) [4]
• Pichavaram Mangrove, Tamil Nadu (2022) [4]
• Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve, Tamil Nadu (2022; 52,672 ha) [4]
• Thane Creek, Maharashtra (2022) [4]

• Aghanashini Estuary, Karnataka (2023) [4]

• Designated in 1990: Wular (J&K), Loktak (Manipur), Sambhar (Rajasthan) and Harike (Punjab) [4].

4. Montreux Record

• Montreux Record: a list, kept under the Ramsar Convention, of Ramsar sites whose ecological health is getting worse because of human activity. Sites on it get priority attention.
• Indian sites on it now:
• Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan): the park is short of water, and invasive weeds are spreading.

• Loktak Lake (Manipur): silt is filling the lake, and the Ithai barrage changed its water levels.

• Removed:

• Chilika (Odisha) was taken off in 2002 after it was restored.

• How: a new channel was cut to the sea → salt and fresh water mixed properly again → fish catch and wildlife recovered.

• Exam trap: Chilika was the first Asian site removed from the Montreux Record. It is not on the list today.

5. Blue carbon and mangroves

• Blue carbon: carbon stored by coastal and marine ecosystems, mainly mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes.
• Why they store so much:
  • waterlogged soil has little oxygen
  • dead roots and leaves rot very slowly
  • so the carbon stays buried in the soil for centuries

• Per hectare, these ecosystems bury carbon in their soils far faster than land forests.

• Mangroves in India (ISFR 2023):

• Total area: 4,991.68 sq km, or 0.15% of India's land area [5] (about 5,000 sq km).
• Change: up 363.68 sq km (7.86%) from 2013 to 2023 [5].
• West Bengal (Sundarbans) has the largest share: 2,119.16 sq km, or 42.45% of India's mangroves. It gained 22.16 sq km since ISFR 2013 [6].

• Sundarbans: the delta of the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers at the head of the Bay of Bengal. India and Bangladesh share it. NCERT lists it among India's biosphere reserves.

• MISHTI (Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes), 2023:

• Aim: plant and grow mangroves on about 540 sq km along India's coast [7].

• It is run in all coastal States and UTs [7].

• Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC): launched at COP27 (Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, 2022), led by the UAE and Indonesia. India is a member.

• Why mangroves matter:
• their roots break storm waves and slow cyclone surges
• they are nurseries for young fish and prawns
• they trap silt and stop coastal erosion

6. Coral reefs and coral bleaching

• A coral is a tiny animal (polyp) that builds a hard limestone skeleton. Millions of them together build a reef. How and where reefs form is covered under ocean relief, temperature and salinity.
• Zooxanthellae: tiny algae that live inside coral tissue. They make food by photosynthesis and give most of it to the coral. They also give the coral its colour. Each helps the other, so the relationship is called symbiosis.
• Coral bleaching, step by step:
• the sea becomes too warm for weeks (heat stress), often during El Niño years
• the stressed coral pushes out its zooxanthellae
• the white limestone skeleton shows through, so the coral turns white (bleached)
• if the heat passes quickly, the algae come back and the coral recovers

• if the heat lasts, the coral starves and dies

• Fourth global bleaching event:

• NOAA confirmed it with the International Coral Reef Initiative on 15 April 2024. It was the 4th global event on record and the 2nd in 10 years [8].
• From January 2023 to September 2025, bleaching-level heat hit about 84.4% of the world's reef area. Mass bleaching was recorded in at least 83 countries and territories. This made it the largest event so far [9].
• The previous record was the 3rd event (2014-2017), when 68.2% of the world's reef area was hit [9].
• NOAA says the event probably ended in mid-2025 [10].

• NOAA's Coral Reef Watch tracks heat stress on reefs using satellites [9].

• Great Barrier Reef (GBR):

• About 2,300 km long, off Queensland (north-east Australia) in the Coral Sea, Pacific Ocean.
• It is the world's largest coral reef system.
• World Heritage Site since 1981.

• It has suffered mass bleaching many times since 1998.

• Indian reefs:

Reef area	Location	Main reef type
Gulf of Mannar	Between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka	Fringing reefs around 21 islands
Palk Bay	Tamil Nadu coast	Fringing
Gulf of Kachchh	Gujarat	Fringing; the northernmost reefs in India
Lakshadweep	Arabian Sea	Atolls (ring-shaped reefs around a lagoon)
Andaman and Nicobar	Bay of Bengal	Fringing

• These Indian reefs also bleached during the 2024 heat stress.

7. Marine flagship species

• Flagship species: a well-known animal used to win public support for protecting a whole habitat.

Dugong ("sea cow")

• A marine mammal that grazes only on seagrass. That is why it is called the "sea cow".
• IUCN status: Vulnerable. Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, which gives it the highest protection.
• Where it lives in India: Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, Gulf of Kachchh, and the Andaman and Nicobar waters.
• Threats:
• seagrass beds are being lost
• dugongs get caught in fishing nets

• they breed slowly: one calf every few years

• India's first Dugong Conservation Reserve: notified in Palk Bay, Tamil Nadu, in 2022. A conservation reserve is a category of protected area under the 2002 amendment to the Wildlife (Protection) Act.

Olive ridley turtle

• The smallest sea turtle that is common in Indian waters. Schedule I.
• Arribada (Spanish for "arrival"): thousands of females come ashore together over a few nights to lay eggs on the same beach.
• Odisha's mass-nesting beaches, among the largest olive ridley nesting sites (rookeries) in the world:

Site	District (Odisha)	Note
Gahirmatha	Kendrapara	Marine sanctuary next to Bhitarkanika mangroves
Rushikulya river mouth	Ganjam	Southern Odisha
Devi river mouth	Puri	Between the other two

• Threats:
• Trawler nets catch and drown turtles. The fix is Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs): a grid in the net that lets turtles escape.
• Lights on the beach confuse hatchlings, so they crawl inland instead of to the sea.

• Beach erosion destroys nests.

• Operation Olivia: the Indian Coast Guard patrols the Odisha coast every nesting season (roughly November to May) to stop illegal fishing near the beaches.

Prelims Hooks

• Ramsar Convention: signed at Ramsar, Iran, on 2 February 1971 (World Wetlands Day); in force 1975; India joined in 1982.
• India's first Ramsar sites, both designated 1 October 1981: Chilika (Odisha) and Keoladeo (Rajasthan) [4].
• 100th Ramsar site: Surha Tal, the Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary in Ballia, UP [2]. 101st: Glaw Lake, Arunachal Pradesh's first, inside the Kamlang Tiger Reserve [3].
• Most sites: Tamil Nadu (20), then Uttar Pradesh (12, then 13 with Surha Tal) [4][2]. Largest site: Sundarban Wetland, 4,23,000 ha [4].
• Montreux Record: Keoladeo and Loktak are on it. Chilika was removed in 2002. The trap: an option saying "Chilika is on the Montreux Record" is wrong.
• Mangroves (ISFR 2023): 4,991.68 sq km, 0.15% of India's area. West Bengal has 42.45% [5][6].
• Bleaching: heat stress → corals push out the zooxanthellae (algae, not bacteria) → corals turn white. NOAA confirmed the 4th global event on 15 April 2024 [8].
• Great Barrier Reef: about 2,300 km, Coral Sea, off Queensland; World Heritage Site since 1981.
• Dugong: eats seagrass; Vulnerable; Schedule I. India's first Dugong Conservation Reserve is in Palk Bay, Tamil Nadu (2022).
• Olive ridley arribada sites, all in Odisha: Gahirmatha, Rushikulya and the Devi river mouth. Operation Olivia is run by the Coast Guard, not the Navy.

Mains Points

• Why wetlands are being lost:
• farming, cities and dams take over wetland land
• silt fills them up (Loktak) and invasive weeds spread
• water supply drops (Keoladeo)
• What is being done: the Wetlands Rules 2017 and State Wetland Authorities. The Ramsar network grew from 26 sites (2014) to 101 (2026) [3]. Chilika's removal from the Montreux Record (2002) shows that restoration works.

• What is still missing: most Ramsar sites are inland bird sanctuaries, while coastal and marine wetlands have fewer sites. Simply designating a site does not protect it without a management plan.

• Blue carbon as a climate tool (GS-III):

• mangroves, seagrass and salt marshes store carbon for centuries
• they also protect the coast from cyclones (Sundarbans, Bhitarkanika)

• India's mangroves grew 7.86% between 2013 and 2023 [5]. MISHTI targets about 540 sq km [7]. India also joined the Mangrove Alliance for Climate.

• Warming seas threaten reefs:

• the 2023-25 bleaching hit about 84.4% of the world's reefs, the worst on record [9]
• reef fishing, coastal protection and tourism are at risk, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Gulf of Mannar and Lakshadweep

• Responses: marine protected areas, satellite heat alerts (NOAA Coral Reef Watch), and cutting other stresses on reefs such as pollution and overfishing

• Saving marine species means saving their habitat:

• dugongs need seagrass beds, so Palk Bay became a conservation reserve
• olive ridleys need safe beaches and safe waters, so the response includes Turtle Excluder Devices, seasonal fishing bans, darker beaches and Operation Olivia
• this ties into the CBD's Kunming-Montreal target of protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030 ("30x30")