Wetlands are areas where water is the primary factor controlling the environment and the associated plant and animal life. They occur where the water table is at or near the surface of the land or where the land is covered by shallow water. But, Ramsar convention takes a broad approach in determining the wetlands which come under the text convention i.e. Article 1.1. According to this wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peat land whether natural, artificial, permanent or temporary with water that is static, flowing, brackish, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceeds six meters.

Climate change poses 4a threat to all ecosystems. In case of wetland ecosystem, not only the water bodies and their economic benefits are lost but they would also directly contribute to climate change by releasing a large amount of trapped greenhouse gases that was the assessment from the scientists taking part in the eighth wetlands conference held in Brazil by INTECOL the international Association for Ecology.

It is the vital conference that recognizes the gravity of the problem and act to stop the degradation, draining and land-filling of wetlands. The volume of greenhouse gases sequestered by wetlands is also immense. Although, they occupy only six percent of the land area worldwide and have suffered sharp declines over the past hundred years.

Scientific research has also estimated that marshes, river, floodplains, lagoons, swamps and other water bodies store almost the equivalent of the current atmospheric carbon levels within water and slow decaying vegetation. But most countries including India, have failed to preserve their integrity and the effort to curb industrial pollution, fertilizer and pesticide run-off from intensive agriculture, encroachment and the dumping of municipal waste had been too feeble to make any visible change.

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Thus, conservation of wetlands requires a strategic action plan that will store their health over the next decade. An exhaustive study by the Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History has identified 655 inland wetlands worthy for priority conservation action.