India gets 101st 'Ramsar' site as Arunachal Pradesh's Glaw Lake joins elite global list of protected wetlands
Glaw Lake, a high-altitude wetland in Arunachal Pradesh, has been designated as India's 101st site under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
The designation extends India's Ramsar network into the Eastern Himalayan region and adds a wetland type not extensively represented among India's existing sites.
The addition follows closely after India's 100th Ramsar site — the Jai Prakash Narayan (Surha Tal) Bird Sanctuary in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh — was designated on 5 June 2026.
With this addition, India further consolidates its position as the country with the highest number of Ramsar sites in Asia.
The Ramsar Convention and "Wetlands of International Importance"
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty adopted in the city of Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, providing the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and "wise use" of wetlands and their resources. A site is designated a "Wetland of International Importance" (a Ramsar Site) when it meets at least one of nine criteria covering representative/rare wetland types, biodiversity value, or importance to waterbirds and fish.
Key Details
- The Convention entered into force in 1975; India ratified it in 1982.
- "Wise use" of wetlands, as defined by the Convention, means maintaining their ecological character while achieving sustainable development.
- Designation criteria include supporting vulnerable/endangered species, regularly holding at least 20,000 waterbirds, or being a representative example of a natural or near-natural wetland type within a biogeographic region.
- In India, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) administers Ramsar-related obligations under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017.
Glaw Lake's designation as the 101st Indian Ramsar site is the direct product of this Convention process, whereby MoEFCC nominates a wetland meeting the Ramsar criteria and the site is formally listed by the Ramsar Secretariat.
India's Ramsar Network — Scale and Distribution
India's Ramsar network has expanded rapidly in recent years, rising from 26 sites as recently as 2019 to over 100 by mid-2026, making it the country with the largest number of Ramsar sites in Asia. Sites span nearly every biogeographic zone of the country, from coastal lagoons and mangroves to Himalayan high-altitude lakes and floodplain wetlands.
Key Details
- India had 100 Ramsar sites as of mid-2026, covering roughly 1.39 million hectares nationally, before this addition.
- Tamil Nadu has the highest number of Ramsar sites among Indian states, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.
- High-altitude Himalayan wetlands are comparatively under-represented in the network relative to coastal and floodplain wetlands, making northeastern and trans-Himalayan additions ecologically significant for representativeness.
- Two Indian Ramsar sites — Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan) and Loktak Lake (Manipur) — are currently on the Montreux Record, a register of sites where adverse ecological changes have occurred or are likely, due to factors such as upstream water diversion and invasive species/hydro-project impacts respectively.
Glaw Lake's listing adds a high-altitude Northeast Himalayan wetland to a network still dominated by coastal and Gangetic-plain sites, which is precisely the kind of ecological-representativeness gain UPSC questions on Ramsar sites tend to test (state-wise distribution, wetland type, and biogeographic spread).
Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017 and Domestic Protection
Beyond international Ramsar designation, wetlands in India are also protected domestically under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which decentralises wetland regulation to State Wetland Authorities while prohibiting specified activities such as encroachment, solid-waste dumping, and unregulated construction within notified wetlands.
Key Details
- The 2017 Rules replaced the earlier Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010, shifting greater regulatory responsibility to state-level authorities chaired by the state Chief Secretary.
- Ramsar designation itself does not automatically trigger these domestic protections; a site typically also needs to be notified under the 2017 Rules for statutory domestic regulation to apply.
- The National Wetland Conservation Programme and platforms like the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management support wetland-health monitoring nationally.
International Ramsar status for Glaw Lake raises its conservation profile and eligibility for technical/financial support, but its actual day-to-day legal protection within India depends on separate notification and enforcement under the 2017 domestic Rules — a distinction UPSC often probes (international recognition versus domestic statutory protection).
- Glaw Lake (Arunachal Pradesh) is India's 101st Ramsar site.
- Ramsar Convention adopted: 1971, at Ramsar, Iran; entered into force 1975; India ratified in 1982.
- India's 100th Ramsar site: Jai Prakash Narayan (Surha Tal) Bird Sanctuary, Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, designated 5 June 2026.
- India had roughly 1.39 million hectares under Ramsar coverage across 100 sites prior to this addition.
- India has the highest number of Ramsar sites of any country in Asia.
- Two Indian sites are on the Montreux Record: Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan) and Loktak Lake (Manipur).
- Domestic wetland regulation operates under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.