Wetland management decentralised

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) has notified the new Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules 2017 which prohibit a range of activities in wetlands. The new rules will replace the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010. The new rules decentralise wetlands management by giving states powers to not only identify and notify wetlands within their jurisdictions but also keep a watch on prohibited activities. These activities include any kind of encroachment, setting up of any industry, expansion of existing industries, solid waste dumping, discharge of untreated waste and effluents from industries, cities, towns, villages and other human settlements, and poaching. As per the new rules, the Centre's role has been restricted to monitoring the rules' implementation by states, recommending trans-boundary wetlands for notification and reviewing integrated management of selected wetlands under the Ramsar Convention. But conservationists are not happy. Debi Goenka, Executive Trustee of Mumbai-based non-profit Conservation Action Trust told Down To Earth, "MOEFCC has simply shifted the onus to the state governments. This has been done to avoid any criticism from the Supreme Court. So the MOEFCC is just protecting its own neck. Conservationists' experience with state government wetland bodies has been extremely bad. They do not have any political will to protect the environment."

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