Wetlands issue deserves very serious attention: SC to Centre

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today expressed concern over the disappearance of wetlands in the country and told the government that this was an important issue which deserved very serious attention.

A wetland is a marshy land area like swamps or mangroves that has water either permanently or seasonally and which could also have a distinct ecosystem.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur asked the Centre to inform it about the status of funds disbursed by them to the states for preservation of wetlands and also about how these have been spent by the states.

"This wetlands issue deserves much serious attention. If there are no wetlands left, it will affect agriculture and several other things. It is a very, very important issue," the bench, also comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, told the counsel appearing for the Centre.

The government informed the top court that the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017 have been notified and it would replace the earlier set of guidelines which came into effect in 2010.

Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for petitioner M K Balakrishnan, said that several states have not complied with the court's direction to inform the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change about the amounts received by them towards wetlands preservation along with the audit reports and impact of the expenditure incurred by them.

"Wetlands are vanishing in our country. This is a matter related to water conservation which is very necessary," he said, adding that earlier, there were around 600 lakes in Bengaluru but the number has now come down to around 40.

Sankaranarayanan also raised objection to some of the provisions in the 2017 rules, following which the bench asked the petitioner to file an application in this regard.