On August 19, 2012, it will be 10 years since the brackish water Ashtamudi Lake with eight creeks was declared a Ramsar site by designating it as a wetland of international importance. The lake was recommended by the Ramsar Convention’s partner organisations as a wetland of 61.4 sq km. And the lake entered the Ramsar list as site number 1,204.
However, since then, the area of the lake has shrunk to 34 sq km and it is facing serious environmental degradation. Revenue authorities dispute the 61.4 sq km extent but agree that the lake may have shrunk by at least 5 sq km in the past 10 years.
Internationally there are 2,046 wetlands designated Ramsar sites and India has 25. The main purpose of declaring an important wetland as Ramsar site is to enable its conservation through local and national-level action with international cooperation for achieving sustainable development.
Two sites in Kollam
Kollam is the only revenue district in India with two wetlands declared as Ramsar sites. The freshwater Sasthamcotta Lake is the second Ramsar site in the district and both were designated on the same day.
But sadly, in spite of the international status, there has been no serious attempt to gain national or international cooperation to protect these lakes.
Environment activists say wanton reclamation, pollution, and sand-mining have destroyed Ashtamudi Lake. The pollution factor includes hydro-carbon discharge from over 1,000 mechanised fishing boats that operate through vast portions of the lake. The lake has also become a solid waste dumping ground of Kollam city.
Even after 10 years, no signboards have been put up on its banks to indicate that it is a Ramsar site. Vast areas of the lake have been reclaimed for so-called development projects and more areas have been earmarked for upcoming projects, they said.
Noted environment activist and former Pro-Vice Chancellor of Calicut University M.K. Prasad said it appeared as though the government was not aware that Ashtamudi Lake was a Ramsar site. That could be a reason for the apathy on the part of the authorities concerned towards conserving the precious wetland. “It is a pity that the lake continues to be destroyed.”
Encroachment
In 2007, some earnest efforts were made by the district administration to recover huge tracts of the lake that had been encroached upon. More than 100 hectares of the lake that had been reclaimed through landfill process was identified. However, no steps have been taken to recover such land.
V.K. Madhusudanan, environment activist and convener of the Kollam district environment subcommittee of the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, said though the Ramsar convention gives big thrust to mangrove conservation, there has been heavy destruction of Ashtamudi Lake’s mangrove forest zones.
Only a small portion of the special funds allocated by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for the conservation of the lake after its status as a Ramsar site had been utilised. Mr. Madhusudanan said almost all courses of the lake had become a solid waste dumping location with plastics turning out to be the biggest threat.
He said encroachments upon the lake were so rampant that not only the mainland course of the lake but even the inhabited estuarine islands were growing in area by the year. Rampant sand-mining has taken the fish population of the lake to near extinction as it destroys the spawning grounds of the lake’s fish.
Keywords: Ashtamudi Lake
not only in kerala but many parts of india with wetlands has been degraded. its our
duty to protect natural ecosystem . Goverment making every effort to save nature
,but in end we are players of destructing the nature. lets create awareness about
benifits and services of ecosystem to save our earth
This shows how inept we are in taking care of our own properties with a long term interest. We look for immediate future benefits without iota of interest in long term care and prosperity. Again, this is a reflection of our lack of civic sense.
Really sad comment on the state of affairs in this supposedly educated and progressive state. It seems like the problem is also that there is no involvement of the people ie. local communities and the state govt. in declaration of the lake as Ramsar site. It is some decision taken in some remote corner of the globe and then handed down like some great boon to the people. Moreover vested and entrenched interests would only like to continue the saga of exploitation and decimation of the precious lake. Finally when the lake has been murdered the real estate people will move in to build some fancy complexes targeted at the Malayalee NRI who's main problem in life is where to invest his dhirams and dollars.
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