Delhi: Sanjay Lake to be first water body to get wetland tag
The wetland tag, which ensures legal protection and funds for renovations, will be extended to at least 19 other water bodies in Delhi.
Sanjay Lake in east Delhi will become the Capital’s first wetland, said state officials aware of the matter, with several other water bodies in the city set for similar protections.
The wetland tag, which ensures legal protection and funds for renovations, will be extended to at least 19 other water bodies in Delhi.
Delhi’s State Wetland Authority (SWA) has identified and geo-tagged 1,057 water bodies across the Capital under the jurisdiction of various government agencies.
“The restoration plan has been reviewed by the technical committee and will be soon sent to the Delhi government to initiate the notification process,” said a SWA member.
The plan will be open for comments from the public for two months, after which the wetland will be notified.
Work on notifying 19 more water bodies is in advanced stages, said the above quoted official.
“A draft notification has been prepared for eight other water bodies,” said the official.
The notification will detail the geo-coordinates of each water body demarcated as a wetland and the area over which it is spread. These, officials said, will ensure the water body is not encroached upon.
Sanjay Lake, spread over 52 acres, and the 120-odd acres that surround it are under the jurisdiction of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which has handed the responsibility of rejuvenating and maintaining the lake to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
A senior DDA official said, “The lake was handed to DJB this May for desilting. The water utility will also lay a pipeline from its Kondli sewage treatment plan to fill the lake and maintain water levels. Work is likely to be finished by early next year and will cost around ₹4-5 crore.”
DDA started work on restoring Sanjay Lake, in phases, in 2020.
In the first phase of the ₹1.2 crore-project, the land-owning agency has constructed an amphitheatre, walkways and cycle tracks in the area surrounding the lake.
“In the second phase, we are carrying out landscaping. We will construct walkways along the lake in the third phase. The land-owning agency plans to start a cycle-sharing project in the area as well,” said a senior DDA official aware of the development.
The Delhi SWA is working on notifying 20 water bodies as ‘wetlands’ before March next year.
“Brief documents for most of these 20 documents have already been prepared and will be passed through departments concerned before being released for a 60-day feedback period,” said the official.
The list of water bodies includes Hauz Khas lake, Bhalswa Lake, Smriti Van (Kondli), Smriti Van (Vasant Kunj), Tikri Khurd Lake, Najafgarh Jheel etc.
If a water body is notified as a wetland, the wetland conservation rules allow for an integrated management plan to be prepared, which is a long-term action plan aimed at the revival, rejuvenation and protection of the wetland. “For each of these wetlands, we can then apply for funding from the Centre,” a SWA official said.
Earlier this year, various agencies had requested the Delhi’s SWA to delete 230 water bodies from the official list of 1,045 water bodies identified and geo-tagged by the Delhi government citing ongoing development work or existing finished structures at the spot where the water bodies once stood.
But an expert committee, constituted by SWA in April this year, recommended against this and suggested that efforts be made to recharge groundwater at these spots.