Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Conservation of wetlands, 25/07/2016
Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Conservation of wetlands, 25/07/2016. As per National Wetland Atlas published by the Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad in 2011, there are a total of 7,57,060 wetlands in the country occupying 15.26 million hectare area (around 4.63% of the geographic area of the country). These include lakes/ponds, ox-bow lakes, high altitude & riverine wetlands, waterlogged areas, rivers/streams, tanks, reservoirs, lagoons, creeks, sand beaches, corals, mangroves, mud flats, salt pans, aquaculture ponds, etc. Out of the total 7,57,060 wetlands, 5,55,557 wetlands have an area less than 2.25 hectare. State-wise distribution of wetland area in the country is given in Annexure.