Threat to Deepor Beel

There is bad news from Deepor Beel in Guwahati, one of the three Ramsar Sites located in the Northeast. The Asian Water Bird Census 2025 conducted on Thursday has revealed that the number of birds in Deepor Beel has come down in the past three years. While the Census recorded a total count of 12,245 birds of 105 species at Deepor Beel this time, as against 11,271 birds across 155 species recorded in 2024, officials, however, have admitted that the bird counts recorded in 2024 and 2025 have been much less than that of 2023, which stood at 26,747 birds. That the presence of birds in Deepor Beel has come down over the past three years is a very dangerous signal. It is well-known that Deepor Beel has been a victim of human greed, with various anthropogenic factors pushing the wonderful wetland to the brink every passing day. Looking back, one finds that the Government of Assam had failed to realise the importance of Deepor Beel way back in 1989 when it declared only a small portion—just 4.14 sq km—of the vast wetland as a bird sanctuary. Created by Nature out of a former channel of the Brahmaputra several hundred years ago, Deepor Beel has earned several distinctions in the past couple of decades. While land-hungry people, including those belonging to the powerful category—corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen—were the first to launch the Deepor Beel destruction campaign as the government looked the other way, laying a railway track literally through the Beel in the early 1990s was the first major official blow to the amazing wetland. The decision to construct a new multi-track railway line through Deepor Beel in the next couple of years is likely to cause more damage to the Beel and the adjoining rich biodiversity ecosystem covering some portions of Meghalaya too, which is home not just to numerous avian and aquatic species but also to a large number of wild animals, including elephants. What is most surprising is that though almost regularly highlighted by the media, the plight of Deepor Beel has not been able to draw the attention of the Convention of Wetlands of International Importance (also referred to as Ramsar Convention), which had, in November 2002, declared it as a Ramsar Site. Important to remember, Deepor Beel was also declared an Important Bird Area (IBA) site by Birdlife International in 2004. Moreover, as recently as 2021, the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change had declared it as an eco-sensitive zone. Now that it is officially confirmed that the bird population in Deepor Beel has come down in the past three years, the situation is rife for the Chief Minister to take a call on it.