We now thrive in a generation with individuals who are either ignorant or oblivious to the aspects of our natural living world. Even though we know the need for it to be acknowledged and preserved for the sole survival of life, we either choose to ignore it or primarily lack essential knowledge of the surrounding environment and the danger it faces. Thus we do not imagine a world without all its abundant natural resources or what happens one day when they all disappear. One such aspect of the natural ecosystem that is in endangerment is the wetlands. These are noted to be one of the most productive ecosystems that constitute diverse flora and fauna, thereby providing the necessities for their survival.

As the name indicates ‘wet land’ is described as land with an increased amount of saturated or unsaturated water, permanently or seasonally, as the water table is at a high level in such areas. Theoretically, the wetland is elucidated as an intersection of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems constituting hydric soil and hydrophytic vegetation and wildlife. General Mitsh and Gosselink (1993) defined wetlands as areas that have characteristics of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, but are neither.

A wetland can be natural or manmade, tidal or nontidal, containing fresh water, salt water, or brackish water, located in the inland or coastal regions. They are found in many parts of the world with different climates and environments, but more commonly in the temperate zones of the world. Marsh, swamp, bog, and fen are some major types of wetlands. The characteristic topography, hydrology, vegetation, and other factors enable the wetlands to accommodate the biotic and abiotic aspects of a miniature ecosystem.

The first and foremost benefit of wetlands is that they play a major role in storing, conserving, and filtering water in a world where water management is highly required. Wetlands are noted to improve water quality, store water and act as a reservoir, replenish groundwater, filter or purify water, and control flood and storm, thus enabling a proper balance in the water cycle. Other uses include the absorption of pollutants, reduction of soil erosion, and increase of soil fertility.

The second major importance of wetlands is that it bestows sanctuary to a diverse spectrum of wildlife biodiversity. It provides food, and space for shelter and breeding to a wide variety of living organisms including insects, reptiles, fish, mammals, birds, insects, plants, microorganisms etc. Wetlands also provide resources such as food, timber, fuelwood, drinking water, traditional medicines, craft materials, areas for aquaculture, and various other natural resources required for the livelihood of the human population.

The factors that act as threats to wetlands include urbanization, population growth, pollution, climate change, drought, increased carbon dioxide level, increased frequency of storms, increased sea level, dredging, draining, agriculture, timber harvesting, introduced species of plants (hyacinth, salvinia) that compete for survival, salinization, use of pesticides, dumping chemical waste products. Ultimately wetlands are destroyed due to failure to identify them and reconstructing them for urbanization and agricultural purposes. If these threats to wetlands continue without any intervention to conserve them, wetlands (the vanishing resource) may truly vanish one day thus the world may become a world without wetlands in the future.

At this point, imagining a world without wetlands is crucially essential to acknowledge the consequences we may face in the future and be prepared to confront them or try and prevent such a circumstance by identifying, protecting, and conserving the wetlands. The consequences of wetland destruction includes loss of a great variety of biological flora and fauna that may at a point lead to extinction of certain species of Odonata, waterfowl, amphibians, Donacia idola, Appalachia arcana, Clemmys muhlenbegii, Synaptomys cooperi relictus,etc.; loss of resources such as plants of medicinal value, timber, fresh water, food, area for agriculture, aquaculture and recreational activities that are provided in abundance to the livelihood of human population; scarcity of water, which will be the greatest impact as fresh groundwater becomes depleted and water storage becomes tedious; change in hydraulic regimes such as the natural water cycle; alters atmospheric air quality with increased carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide; drastic climate change ultimately causing unmanageable droughts and floods affecting the civilizations build over and nearby the areas that are supposedly to be wetlands; decline in crop production due to loss of water and soil quality and also impacts livestock management; increased pollution due to increased urbanization.

Thus the destruction of wetlands immensely disrupts the natural order of life causing imbalance in the structural and functional basis of the living and physical world. On account to avoid this, the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty was established in 1971, which enlisted several wetlands from different nations to be conserved and used efficiently without its destruction. India became a part of this in October 1981 by enlisting Chilika Lake in Odisha and Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan as wetlands under the Ramsar convention. Tamil Nadu became a part of this on 19th August 2002 by registering the Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary encompassing an area of 38,500 hectares.

Although several conventions or programs are organized, it is believed that every citizen of the world has a crucial role in the process of safeguarding the earth’s resources and ensuring life sustainability for the succeeding generation. According to the National Wetland Atlas, prepared by the Ahmedabad-based Space Application Center (SAC) of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are wetland-rich states as they have 12.88% and 6.92% of the geographic area under wetlands, with Kancheepuram as the leading district with 80,445 hectares of wetlands. Though people are not aware of these facts, they are entitled to this knowledge so they may act accordingly to ensure the safety of the wetlands that are present in their surrounding environment. Even paddy fields are considered to be constructed wetlands and they are in utmost danger nowadays due to the abrupt decline in agriculture practices in our state.

The best measures that one can take as an individual and as an official administrative organization is to create awareness on how to identify wetlands and what to do to ensure the safety of the existing wetlands by not reconstructing such sites for urbanization or any other purposes. Another method includes the manmade construction of wetlands by taking into account all the factors that are essential for its construction and sustainability for a prolonged period.

In reality, the depletion of wetlands does not destroy the earth in a day but the destruction does occur in a passive progressive manner that has to be counterbalanced by small-scale measures undertaken by every individual with the world as their habitation. It is high time that we envision a world with vanished wetlands to understand the consequences we may face due to our ignorance or obliviousness and hence try to create a minute change in the prime process of saving the earth and ensuring life for both humanity and the vast biodiversity.

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