STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Will the famous Deepor Beel lose its status as a Ramsar Site?
This concern has been voiced by the Deepor Beel Suraksha Mancha. The organization's secretary Pramod Kalita has said that when the Deepor Beel had received the Ramsar Site status in 2002, it boasted of 219 varieties of birds, including 70 migratory species. However, 20 years later, the latest survey - conducted by Assam State Biodiversity Board, Guwahati Wildlife Division and some NGOs - in February this year recorded the presence of only 66 species of birds.
Kalita mentioned that Deepor Beel had fulfilled five out of nine required criteria at the time of acquiring the Ramsar Site tag. These included the fact that Deepor Beel supports some globally endangered species of birds like spot-billed pelican (Pelecanus philippensis), lesser adjutant stork (Leptoptilos javanicus), Baer's pochard (Aythya baeri), Pallas's sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus), and greater adjutant stork (Leptoptilos dubius). Secondly, it is one of the staging sites on the migratory flyways and some of the largest congregations of aquatic birds in Assam can be seen here, particularly in winter, with a reported recorded count of 19,000 water birds in a day. Further, Deepor Beel supports over 50 commercially viable species of fish belonging to 19 families. The wetland supports high diversity and concentrations of indigenous freshwater fish species. Natural breeding of some of these species take place within the Beel itself. The Beel provides food, acts as a spawning and nursery water body.
Among the large number of migratory water fowl, the Siberian crane (Grus leucogeranus) regularly migrates to this habitat during its annual journey. This is in addition to the large congregation of residential water birds seen in the lake.[3]
Kalita said that moreover, surveys have revealed the presence of 20 amphibians, 12 lizards, 18 snakes and six turtle and tortoise species in the Beel.
However, Kalita lamented that now endangered bird species such as spot-billed pelicans, Baer's pochard, Pallas's sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus), and greater adjutant stork (Leptoptilos dubius) are no longer visible in the Deepor Beel.
While over 400 varieties of aquatic vegetation were found in 2002, there are less than 50 such species in Deepor Beel, Kalita said. He added that while the presence of as many as 19,000 water birds were recorded on a single day at one time, the latest survey on February 12 this year revealed the presence of only 10,289 birds of 15-16 species on a single day.
Last but not least, Kalita said, Deepor Beel's area was 4,000 hectare in 2002, but the State Government has failed to carry out a survey of the area and fix the boundary of the Ramsar Site in the last 20 years, despite clear evidence of encroachment in the area and its use as a dumping ground at one time.
Consequently, Deepor Beel is facing the threat of losing its Ramsar Site status in the near future, Kalita said.
It may be mentioned that Ramsar Sites are selected under the Convention on Wetlands signed at Ramsar in Iran. The Convention's broad aims are to halt the worldwide loss of wetlands and to conserve, through wise use and management, those that remain.
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