Question

The Sundarban is declared as 'Ramsar site' in

1. 1987
2. 1972
3. 2018
4. 2019

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 4 : 2019

The correct answer is 2019.

• Sundarban Wetland, India was recognized as the Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention in January 2019.
  • The Sundarbans comprises hundreds of islands and a network of rivers, tributaries, and creeks in the delta of the Ganga and the Brahmaputra at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal in India and Bangladesh.
  • Located on the southwestern part of the delta, the Indian Sundarban constitutes over 60% of the country’s total mangrove forest area.
  • It is the 27^th Ramsar Site in India, and with an area of 4,23,000 hectares is now the largest protected wetland in the country.​

• Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty adopted in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.
• It came into force for India on 1^st February 1982. Those wetlands which are of international importance are declared as Ramsar sites.
• The Convention’s mission is “the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world.
• There are 46 Ramsar sites in India.
  • 4 new sites in India were added to the Ramsar list in 2021.
    • Sultanpur National Park – Gurugram, Haryana
    • Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary – Jhajjar, Haryana
    • Thol Lake Wildlife Sanctuary – Near Ahmedabad, Gujarat
    • Wadhvana Wetland – Vadodara, Gujarat
• Also, ​Sundarbans National Park, established in 1984, constitutes a core region within the tiger reserve; it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.
• Sunderbans was designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2001.