Overview
- Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav announced on Thursday that Sukhna Wetland in Chandigarh and Sauj Jheel in Uttar Pradesh have been added to the Ramsar list, taking India’s total to 103.
- Sukhna is a peri‑urban wetland that offers open water, littoral vegetation, scrub and forest and provides feeding, breeding, roosting and wintering habitat for resident and migratory birds on the Central Asian Flyway.
- The Chandigarh administration credited focused eco‑restoration, catchment management and inter‑departmental coordination under UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria for enabling the Ramsar nomination and pledged to protect the wetland and the adjoining Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Officials say Ramsar status will bring international scientific oversight and enhanced technical assistance for monitoring and conservation, while also creating avenues for regulated eco‑tourism and local environmental education.
- The designation could raise on‑ground support for threatened species such as the vulnerable common pochard, the endangered Pallas’s fish eagle and the black pond turtle and increase recreational and learning benefits for Chandigarh residents.