3 Lakes of Sikkim proposed for Ramsar

GANGTOK, September 11: Three revered fresh water lakes out of 227 wetlands in Sikkim will be proposed by the State government for inclusion in the international Ramsar Convention of Wetlands during an upcoming workshop at Manali, Himachal Pradesh.
The three day workshop on Ramsar Convention is slated to commence from September 14 and the Sikkim government will be participating in the important meet.
The Centre had indicated inclusion of some wetlands of Sikkim into the Ramsar site during the workshop, said C Lachungpa, CCF, State forest department.
The State forest department will be proposing the inclusion of Tsomgo, Guru Dongmar and Khecheopalri wetland complexes into the international heritage site.
Mr. Lachunpga explained that Guru Dongmar is a famous religious spot and is one of the sacred lakes of Sikkim located at 17100 feet in the cold desert region of North Sikkim. It is also one of the main halting points for the migratory birds besides being a popular tourism spot.
The second fresh water lake to be proposed for inclusion in the Ramsar site of wetlands is Khecheopalri lake of West Sikkim.
The assets of this ‘wish fulfilling’ lake are that it is uniquely located in a temperate forest area and is known to be very old lake besides being a famous tourist attraction.
The third lake being considered to be proposed by the State forest department for inclusion in the Ramsar site of wetlands is Tsomgo lake, the bread and butter of tourism operators of East Sikkim.
Located at an altitude of 13000 ft, Tsomgo lake is a halting point for migratory birds and is being considered by the State government as an alternative source for drinking water source to Gangtok.
Explaining the significance of Tsomgo lake, Mr. Lachungpa said that unlike wetlands of West and North districts, most of the lakes in East Sikkim are seasonally snow fed. The duration of snow has been now reduced to hardly two months in a year and there are no permanent snow mountains or glaciers to sustain the lakes of East Sikkim unlike wetlands of West and North districts which are snow fed or are glacial lakes, he said underlining the need to retain the water sources of East Sikkim.
The above three lakes being projected for inclusion in the exclusive list of lakes of international importance are already identified as wetlands under National Wetland Conservation Programme of Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF).
The annual report of MoEF for the year 2008-09 lists the wetlands of Khecheopalri lake, Tamze, Tembao, Phedang, Guru Dongmar and Tsogmo as being included in the list of 115 wetlands of the country in the National Wetland Conservation Programme.
The national progamme is a scheme on conservation and management of wetlands was initiated in 1987 with the primary objective to undertake priority wetlands for intensive conservation measures and to prepare an inventory of Indian wetland.
Sikkim has around 227 wetlands spread over North, East and West districts. These wetlands play a vital role as water resources of Sikkim in terms of drinking water, hydro electric projects, environment and eco-system.
Most of these wetlands are either glacial fed, snow fed and some are ground water fed, said the CCF. He pointed out that due to various factor like degradation of environment, developmental activities in fragile alpine landscape and impact of global warming, some of the wetlands have been affected like reduction of water volume and shrinkage of their sizes.
Mr. Lachungpa further highlighted the example of Tsogmo lake to supplement his observations.
As per the 1963 Survey of India toposheet, the area of Tsogmo lake was 22 hectares. “But the assessment report of State Pollution Control Board of 1997, the lake size is around 18 hectares. So over 32 years, there has been a reduction of 4 hectares in the lake size”, said Mr. Lachungpa.
Considering all the above phenomenal characteristics of wetlands, the forest department had invited experts from wetland division of the MoEF 2006 and carried out certain sample studies of selected wetlands in the North, East and West districts, said Mr. Lachungpa. Accordingly, State level screening committee was constituted in 2007 to oversee and review the change of wetland ecosystem, he said.
After the joint survey of State forest department and MoEF, about 114 wetlands were assessed and a wetland index of Sikkim was prepared.
Out of the index, six above mentioned wetlands were considered for wetland conservation and management under National Wetland Conservation Programme.
But due to the small size of the wetlands, the State did not immediately qualified for the inclusion in the programme, it is informed.
To overcome this issue, the State forest department identified a number of lakes as a complex of wetlands and conservation measures such as catchment area treatment, awareness and sensitizing of local people, survey of flora and fauna of the wetland area and desiltation works have been proposed for the six identified wetland complexes.
Following this the Centre has provided funds for 3 wetlands in 2007-08 (Guru Dongmar, Tsomgo and Phendang) and in 2008-09, Khechupuri lake was included in the national programme. The two remaining wetlands are being considered in the coming year, it is informed.
Works like catchment area treatment, desiltation, awareness and sensitization of local people have been done as per the national wetland conservation programme for the fresh water lakes of Sikkim, said Mr. Lachungpa. We have constituted Tsogmo Pokerhi Sangraksan Samiti and a similar body for Khecopalri lake is being considered, he said.
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