(a) the details about the National Wetlands Conservation Programme and funds allocated under the programme for the last three years;
(b) whether the Government has created any data registry about the number of wetlands in the country; and
(c) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO)
(a) The Ministry had been providing financial assistance to the States/Union Territories under the National Wetlands Conservation Programme (NWCP) for conservation and management of identified wetlands in the country till the year 2012-13. To have better synergy and avoid overlap, the schemes of NWCP & National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP) have been merged into new integrated scheme namely ‘National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems’ (NPCA) in February, 2013. So far, an amount of Rs. 969.90 crore has been released to the State Governments for various conservation and management activities in wetlands including lakes. State-wise details of funds released during last three years and the current financial year under the NPCA are annexed.
(b) & (c) Under the National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS) programme, the Ministry had sanctioned a research project to Space Applications Centre (SAC) Ahmedabad, under which ISRO has carried out National Wetland Inventory and Assessment (NWIA) at 1:50,000 scale using Indian Remote Sensing Satellite during 2006-2011. The details were brought out as national and state level wetland inventory Atlases. A total of 7, 57,060 wetlands have been mapped in the Country. The total wetland area estimated is 15.26 million hectare that is around 4.63% of the geographical area of the country.
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