Irrigation Says OK to Ramsar Status for Manjeera Reservoir

Hyderabad:The government’s plans to pitch inclusion of the Manjeera reservoir and the wildlife sanctuary as a wetland of international importance and significance received a boost with the irrigation department, the custodian of the reservoir, agreeing to the proposal.

The department was asked for its comments and they were received on Tuesday. Irrigation officials had some concerns over the future use of the reservoir as Manjeera is a crucial water supply source to Hyderabad. All their concerns were addressed and the department got on board.

The proposal will now be sent to the state government for onwarding it to the Centre and to Ramsar Convention office seeking Manjeera’s inclusion in the international list as a wetland of importance and its protection, and sustainable use, an official who was part of the discussions on wetlands in Telangana on Tuesday, which was chaired by forest and environment minister Konda Surekha.

Surekha said as the wetlands play a crucial role in environment and ecological health, the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules – 2017 must be strictly implemented. The work on establishing and finalising borders of wetlands, and their digital mapping must be speeded up, she said.

Officials informed the meeting that as per a satellite imagery-based atlas, Telangana has 12,249 wetlands, of which borders have been finalised for 4,023. The officials also said that draft notifications on declaring several wetlands officially as such bodies have been prepared, and public opinion will be sought soon on this.

The meeting was attended among others by PCCF (HoFF) Dr C. Survarna, principal secretary environment and forests Ahmed Nadeem, chief wildlife warden Vinay Kumar.