Secretariat of Ramsar Convention seeks report
JAIPUR: The secretariat of Ramsar Convention in Switzerland has sought details of mass mortality of birds at Rajasthan’s Sambhar Lake, the largest inland salt lake in India, according to an official of state environment department.
“The senior regional advisor for Asia and Oceania has written to the environment ministry in Delhi for a detailed report on Sambhar and the ministry has sought it from us,” added the officer, who is not authorized to speak to media and so did not want to be named.
Carcasses of around 18,000 migratory birds have been found at Sambhar wetland since November 10, raising alarm at the Ramsar Convention secretariat.
“I s aw s ome newspaper reports and have received mails from some local activists about bird mortality at Sambhar. Kindly share some more detailed information on this for better understanding,” Reiko Iitsuka wrote to environment ministry on November 18, the official quoted above said.
Manju Pandey, joint secretary in the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MOEFCC) wrote to the Rajasthan government on Tuesday, seeking the information on an urgent basis.
The ‘Convention on Wetlands’ called the Ramsar Convention, was signed in Ramsar in Iran in 1971 and is an intergovernmental treaty providing the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
India became a party to the Ramsar Convention in February 1982 and Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan was designated a Ramsar site on March 23, 1990.
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot is planning to write to the union environment minister Prakash Javadekar to inform him about action taken by the state government in Sambhar.
An official in the chief minsiter’s office said the state is likely to request the Centre for support to ensure the situation does not flare up and other wetlands do not get affected.
Earlier on Wednesday, the forest department sent a note on Sambhar to the forest ministry in Delhi. According to that note seen by HT, the government launched rescue operation in the lake area on November 10 after getting reports of mass bird mortality. So far, 17,981 carcasses of different species of birds have been recovered and 658 birds rescued.