E-Paper
State appoints district-level panels for wetland conservation
State government has appointed district-level panels for the conservation and management of wetlands in Maharashtra
PUNE: In a welcome move, the state government has appointed district-level committees for the conservation and management of wetlands in Maharashtra. The committees have been constituted in all districts of the state and will primarily work towards keeping track of and managing these wetlands.
A notification in this regard has been issued in the last week of June according to which each district-level committee will have 10 members, be headed by the district collector, and have a regional officer from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) as member-secretary. Other members include head officers of urban local bodies; officers from the land record, public works, irrigation, fisheries, water, and sanitation departments; and the deputy conservator of forests.
Earlier, the Maharashtra government had appointed a state wetland authority and it was decided to form district-level committees to help this authority in wetland conservation and management. The district-level committees have to work as per the regulations of the Wetland (Protection and Conservation) Rules 2017. They must track records of wetlands in the district and act upon complaints received regarding the wetlands. The committees will be responsible for the conservation and management of wetlands in the district, said Shankar Waghmare, regional officer, MPCB Pune. As per the Wetland (Protection and Conservation) Rules 2017, wetlands include water bodies such as rivers, lakes, streams, seas, manmade reserves etc. They are essential for the environment as they have separate ecosystems. However, in the last few years, these wetlands have been plagued by problems such as encroachment, waste dumping, infrastructural works etc. Hence, environmental experts have raised concerns and demanded protection, conservation and proper management of wetlands. Taking note of the same, the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) came up with new rules in 2017 under which state-level committees were formed all over India.
