India: Sunderbans may soon feature on Ramsar list

Subhro Niyogi Times of India 9 Jun 12;

KOLKATA: State forest department is on the verge of completing the Ramsar information sheet on the Sunderbans Reserve Forest in India, a critical step towards being listed as a wetland of international importance.

If the proposal is accepted and Indian Sunderbans declared a Ramsar site, it will be the third prestigious citation for the mangrove delta. In 1987, UNESCO declared the Sunderbans National Park a World Heritage site and in 2001, the entire Indian Sunderbans was declared a Global Biosphere Reserve.

The world's largest contiguous mangrove ecosystem stretches over 10,200 sq km across India and Bangladesh. Of this, 4,263 sq km of reserve forest is in India and 5,937 sq km in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh section of the Sunderbans is already listed on the Ramsar site and is a World Heritage site. The Bangladeshi government recently provided an updated Ramsar information sheet on its Sunderbans Ramsar site, enlarging its area from 596,000 hectare to 601,700 hectare.

Speaking to TOI, Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve director Pradeep Vyas said the fact sheet requiring information on map of Sunderbans, biodiversity, hot spots and vulnerability was nearing completion and would be forwarded to Ramsar authorities via the state government and the Union ministry of environment and forests.

"The Sunderbans was nominated for recognition as a Ramsar site by the Centre, but the documentation that is required could not be taken up till recently. Now, we have taken it up in earnest and will complete the process soon," he said.

Ramsar Convention is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The convention uses a broad definition of the types of wetlands covered in its mission, including mangroves. It is the only global environmental treaty that deals with a particular ecosystem.

International recognition aside, the Ramsar tag will help promote the Sunderbans as an ecotourism hot spot, it will also ensure better conservation as any threat to the ecosystem or change in character will mean derecognition and an international embarrassment.

Apart from being the world's largest tiger habitat, the mangrove forest in the Sunderbans is remarkable for the protection it provides to nearly 4.5 million people on the Indian side and another 3.5 million on the Bangladesh portion from tidal surge generated by cyclonic depression in the Bay of Bengal. About one third of the total area is used as protected area for the conservation of biological diversity. In addition, the abundant fish and biomass resources - timber, fuelwood, pulpwood, leaves, shells, crabs, honey and fish - are harvested by local communities. The Sunderbans is also a major pathway for nutrient recycling and pollution abatement.

The biodiversity of the Sunderbans is also diverse. The delta has the distinction of encompassing the world's largest mangrove forest belt with 84 identified flora species, of which 34 are true mangroves.