Kanjli Wetland - Wetland

Wetland

The Kanjli Wetland is one of the manmade wetlands in India identified by the Government of India, as per the Expert Group’s (set up in 1983 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests) report published in 1990. Since the main article on Wetland does not cover the aspects of Indian wetlands, the work done in this regard in India is explained. The Expert Group has based its directory on the basis of the definition enunciated by the Ramsar International Convention on Wetlands:

" areas of marsh, fen, peatland, or water whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres".

Further, considering the definition of wetlands given by Cowden in 1979 for classification of wetlands in USA, three key attributes of hydrology (the degree of flooding or soil saturation), wetland vegetation (hydrophytes) and hydric soils have also been considered for identification. In this list, Mangroves are not included since it falls under a separate category.

The Expert Group's directory has made a distinction between Natural and Man-Made wetlands (including wetlands of less than 100 ha area). In India, in its 24 states and two union territories (as per the 1990 report), there are 2167 nos of natural wetlands with a total area of 1.45 million ha and Man-Made wetlands of 65,254 nos with total area of 2.59 million ha. The inland water bodies listed in the report covers lakes, tanks, reservoirs etc.