There should be an agency in India to bring all spatial data like census maps, wetland maps, geological maps, etc together. It is important to deal with emerging threats like terrorism, observed Dr. Prithvish Nag, Director, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO), India. He acted as the chairperson of the plenary session, National Mapping Policies: Implementation, Challenges and Way Forward, during Geointelligence Asia 2011 in New Delhi, India.
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Loktak Lake, the largest freshwater lake in India, also called the only Floating lake in the world due to the floating phumdis (heterogeneous mass of vegetation, soil, and organic matters at various stages of decomposition) on it, is located near Moirang in Manipur state, India.The etymology of Loktak is Lok = “stream” and tak = “the end”.The Keibul Lamjao National Park, which is the last natural refuge of the endangered sangai or Manipur brow-antlered deer (Rucervus eldi eldi), one of three subspecies of Eld’s Deer, covering an area of 40 km2 (15 sq mi), is situated in the southeastern shores of this lake and is the largest of all the phumdis in the lake.
Phumdis are a series of floating islands, exclusive to the Loktak Lake in Manipur state, in northeastern India. They cover a substantial part of the lake area and are heterogeneous masses of vegetation, soil and organic matter, in different stages of decay. The largest single mass of phumdi is in the southeastern part of the lake, covering an area of 40 km2 (15.4 sq mi). This mass constitutes the world’s largest floating park, named Keibul Lamjao National Park. The park was formed to preserve the endangered Eld’s Deer subspecies, called Sangai in the Manipuri language, indigenous to this area.
Phumdis in Loktak Lake
Phumdis are used by the local people for constructing their huts for fishing and other livelihood uses, and are inhabited by about 4000 people. Athapums are artificial circular phumdis, built by the villagers as enclosures for fish farming; aquaculture has caused proliferation of the phumdis in the lake.
This ancient lake plays an important role in the economy of Manipur. It serves as a source of water for hydropower generation, irrigation and drinking water supply. The lake is also a source of livelihood for the rural fisherman who live in the surrounding areas and on phumdis, also known as “phumshongs”. Human activity has led to severe pressure on the lake ecosystem. 55 rural and urban hamlets around the lake have a population of about 100,000 people.
A rich biodiversity with habitat heterogeneity has been recorded during a scientific survey carried out between January 2000 and December 2002 in different habitat patches of the lake. The lake’s rich biological diversity comprises 233 species of aquatic macrophytes of emergent, submergent, free-floating and rooted floating leaf types.
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Wetlands are defined as transitional between terrestrial and aquatic eco-systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water .
Wetlands have been categorized both as biomes and ecosystems. A patch of land that develops pools of water after a rain storm would not be considered a “wetland” though the land is wet. Wetlands have unique characteristics: they are generally distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level and on the types of plants that thrive within them. Specifically, wetlands are characterized as having a water table that stands at or near the land surface for a long enough season each year to support aquatic plants. Put simply, wetlands are lands made up of hydric soil.
Wetlands have also been described as ecotones, providing a transition between dry land and water bodies. Mitsch and Gosselink write that wetlands exist “…at the interface between truly terrestrial ecosystems and aquatic systems, making them inherently different from each other, yet highly dependent on both.”
An ecotone is a transition area between two adjacent but different patches of landscape, such as forest and grassland. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and grassland ecosystems).An ecotone may appear on the ground as a gradual blending of the two communities across a broad area, or it may manifest itself as a sharp boundary line.
The word ecotone was coined from a combination of eco(logy) plus -tone, from the Greek tonos or tension – in other words, a place where ecologies are in tension.
Wetlands are under severe threat from the real estate lobby and industry as they are easy to lease out, said Jairam Ramesh, Environment Minister, Government of India. Ramesh was at the Space Application Centre (SAC) at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) campus in Ahmedabad to deliver an address on ‘National Wetland Inventory and Assessment Project’ (NWIA).
“Wetlands have ecological and social value. But a large area of wetlands in India is under threat from real estate lobby and industries such as highways, cement plants and power plants. Now, with a database on the inventory of wetlands being available with the help from the SAC, the Centre can take action on its own to designate important wetlands in the country based on the satellite images,” added Ramesh.
The NWIA project findings noted that the total wetlands area in the country is estimated at 15.26 million hectares, 4.63 per cent of the total geographic area of the country. Of this, Gujarat holds the largest area under wetland with over 3.47 million hectares of area, about 18 per cent of the state’s total geographic area. Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra are some of the other states having more than one million hectares of area under wetlands.
Biodiversity At Shekha Jheel
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water.Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and bogs, among others. The water found in wetlands can be saltwater, freshwater, or brackish. The world’s largest wetland is the Pantanal which straddles Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay in South America.
Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems. Plant life found in wetlands includes mangrove, water lilies, cattails, sedges, tamarack, black spruce, cypress, gum, and many others. Animal life includes many different amphibians, reptiles, birds, insects, and mammals.
In many locations, such as the United Kingdom, Iraq, South Africa and the United States, wetlands are the subject of conservation efforts and Biodiversity Action Plans.
Shekha Jheel in Aligarh,UP,India
The Sheikha Lake in the Aligarh District of Uttar Pradesh is a perennial lake alongside an irrigation canal that is surrounded by farmland on all sides. Every year during winters the lake is thronged by thousands of ducks, geese, terns and waders traversing from wide ranges. It is situated at the distance of 17 kilometers from Aligarh City.
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Wikipedia
Geospatial Information Authority (GSI), Japan, prepared an environment map of world. It shows digital geographic data sets of the whole globe with unified specifications developed in close collaboration with national mapping organisations around the world, FutureGov reported. The map accurately describes present status of the global environment.
Global mapping project aims to contribute to the planning of countermeasures on global environmental problems such as global warming and climate change. The project intends to develop a unified specification of digital geospatial information to the whole land area of the earth. Currently, 181 countries and regions around the world are promoting data development in collaboration with the world’s National Surveying and Mapping Organisations.
At present the GSI plays a role as the Secretariat of the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping and is also responsible for the management of the progress of the Global Map development as well as the data validation submitted from each country.
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