India's wetlands reach 103 Ramsar sites

On 15 October 2026, Sukhna Wetland in Chandigarh and Sauj Jheel in Mainpuri district, Uttar Pradesh, were designated as Ramsar sites, taking India's total to 103 wetlands of international importance across 28 states and union territories. Together the 103 sites cover approximately 13.87 lakh hectares. The Ramsar Convention, signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, is one of the oldest international environmental treaties, and India acceded to it in 1982. In 2014 India had only 26 Ramsar sites, so the growth to 103 in a decade is one of the fastest expansions of any country's list.

The milestones of 2026 tell the story in stages. On World Environment Day, 5 June 2026, the Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary, Surha Tal, a 34-square-kilometre oxbow lake in Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh, was designated as India's 100th Ramsar site. On 3 August 2026, Glaw Lake in Arunachal Pradesh became the 101st. Sukhna Wetland and Sauj Jheel, numbered 2602 and 2603 on the Ramsar list, then took the total to 103. Tamil Nadu has the highest number of Ramsar sites in India, with 20, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 14. India now has more internationally recognised wetlands than any country in Asia and ranks third globally, behind only the United Kingdom and Mexico.

Designation is a recognition, not a fence. A Ramsar site commits a country to the “wise use” of the wetland, but the convention does not itself stop encroachment, pollution, sewage discharge, mining, or infrastructure inside notified buffers. Critics have pointed out that the convention's own monitoring framework has flagged a number of Indian sites as facing ecological stress, and that designation has run far ahead of on-ground protection: India's wetland atlas mapped about 36 lakh wetlands covering around 5.12 per cent of the country's geographical area, against which 103 recognised sites are a small fraction.

The value of the list is therefore best understood as a tool. It gives local conservationists an international reference, it obliges governments to report on ecological character, and it creates a public record when a site degrades. But a rising count is not, by itself, evidence that wetlands are safer. The test of the 103 is what happens to water quality, bird counts, and encroachment at each site in the years after designation.