Jairam ready to fight States for wetland protection (The Hindu 3 February 2011)

BHARATPUR (Rajasthan): Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is prepared to go on the warpath yet again. His latest battleground: the endangered wetlands.
Over the next few months, he intends working proactively and aggressively with States to implement the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010.
“Why should we wait one year for the States to take action and identify wetlands for notification?
“We will prepare a list of wetlands with the information we already have and the help of World Wildlife Fund and other organisations, and send it to the States.”
The Minister was addressing a consultation of State officers on the Rules, meeting at the Keoladeo bird sanctuary here on the occasion of World Wetlands Day.
“The States will have to respond within two months.”
Considering that in many States, wetlands are identified as wasteland in land revenue records — a fact that industries seeking land are quick to exploit — it is unlikely that State governments will be happy about his ultimatum. “States may not want to notify any of the wetlands that we identify,” Mr. Ramesh admitted.
Power to notify
“But we have got the Central rules, and we have the power to notify the Central rules. There will be a little bit of tension with the States, but I am prepared for confrontation with the States because we have reached a stage when we cannot allow the wetlands to be taken over in the name of development.”
Mr. Ramesh listed various recent threats. “There is the Nirma plant in the wetlands of Kutch in Gujarat, there are the power plants in Srikakulam [in Andhra Pradesh], and there are high-rises threatening the wetlands of Coimbatore...Wetlands have an environmental and social value that must be protected.”
When several State officials pointed out that many communities depended on wetlands for their livelihood, the Minister promised them that the existing claimants would be protected. “But this is only for livelihood, there can be no commercial activities permitted in the wetlands,” he said.