Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management has completed ‘ground-truthing’ or physical verification of all but 11 of 23,415 wetlands in Maharashtra, paving the way for bringing them under legal protection under the Wetlands Rules.
Ground-truthing involves survey of wetlands to confirm their existence, boundaries and present land use against satellite imagery. It is considered a crucial step before a wetland is officially notified under environmental laws.
According to the latest data uploaded on the Maharashtra wetlands dashboard maintained by the NCSCM, the remaining 11 wetlands are in Pune district and their fieldlevel verification is underway. The wetlands surveyed so far include 247 in Thane district, 1,093 in Raigad district, 37 in Mumbai city and 210 in Mumbai suburban district.
Ahmednagar district has the highest number of wetlands in the state at 1,596, followed by Nashik with 1,236 and Chandrapur with 1,231. “This process should not have taken 16 years after the National Wetland Atlas was launched,” said B N Kumar, director of NatConnect Foundation.”
