Wetlands to beat summer heat

Chennai, April 22: The weather has been getting increasingly oppressive in recent years with the summer of 2009 arriving sooner and threatening to stay long. Pointing out that temperatures across the country have soared by 3-5 deg Celsius over the last two decades, noted environmentalist Dr Nandita Krishna here said destruction of wetlands to create concrete jungles was the main reason for this scary situation.

In Chennai, the shrinking of wetlands at Pallikaranai-Medavakkam and Pulicat has resulted in hotter weather. “The wanton destruction of Chennai wetlands has led to rise in the city temperature. This year saw the summer beginning much earlier and already peaking by mid-April. This is because we do not respect our wetlands, our nature,” said Dr Krishna, who is also the director of the C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer Environmental Education Centre (CPRIEEC) in Chennai.

Dr Krishna recalled that Chennai suburbs had abundant wetlands, which got filled up for building housing colonies, factories and tanneries. “The Pallavaram wetlands have ended up as tanneries. Residential apartments swallowed the rich wetlands of Velachery belt. The wetland in Pallikaranai is being used as dumping yard by government agencies. The state and Union governments should take urgent steps to save our wetlands before it is too late,” said Dr Krishna. She said the declaration of Pulicat and Pallikaranai-Medava-kkam regions as RAMSAR sites would ensure their protection.

Dr Berth Middleton, research ecologist, National Wetlands Research Centre, Louisiana, USA, said that no proper statistics was available about wetlands in India.