Issue Date: Mar 31, 2011
CHECK LAND SHARKS
ASAD RAHMANI, director
Bombay Natural History Society
The Government of India should enact a wetland conservation act, on the lines of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. But it should also consider the views of people dependent on wetlands. Millions of acres of village, semi-urban and urban wetlands are controlled by gram panchayats or city administrators. Most often administrators have no interest in protecting them and succumb to land sharks easily. Many times, wetlands are “inspected” during peak summer, when they have no water, and allocated to land sharks as wastelands.