Reduced to filthy, foul smelling cesspools, with mosquito larvae
arawing their lazy, intricate patterns on the green surfaces, the
same takes and tanks in urban areas draw a passerby's
game is when purple hyacinths bloom and disguise
their filth. Orphans of a wiser age, these water bodies have Jew
orisons to their cause today. Spread allover the country, some
bow w6a; wetlands are natural formations, but most of them
Homemade. And they were originally built to serve more
deposes than just guzzling the city's muck.


in dw urban hubs of the and central and southern
1% dity store and supply waterfor drinking and irrigation,
I help in groundwater recharging. In Madras, which
dw about 1,400 mm of rainfall annually, residents still get
pft once in 2 days. Reason: there are not enough clean storage tanks. In cities enjoying perennial river sources and high
rainfall, they serve as flood cushions and, as in the case of
Calcutta, act as a resource recovery area, release excess nitrogen,
inactivate phosphates, remove toxins and heavy metals and treat
wastewater.


The usefulness ofa wetlandcan bedeterminedfrom thepoint
of view of the flo ra a nd fauna i t sustains, its ecosystem values,
and its contribution towards maintaining global air and water
cycles.


Today, we are systematically destroying them ... in the name
of development, we are digging our own graves. A team Of
researchers from the Centre for Science and Environment -
Ambika Sharma, Anju Sharma and Uday Shankar - toured
across the country to assess this tragic self-destructive overdrive.