India crossed the milestone of 100 Ramsar Sites in June 2026, while 26 July is observed globally as the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem (World Mangrove Day). These developments make it the perfect time to understand Wetlands and Mangroves in detail. From the examination perspective, this is an important topic under Environment and Ecology and is frequently covered in RBI Grade B, NABARD Grade A, UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE), as well as various State PCS and other competitive examinations.
Wetlands and mangroves are vital water-based ecosystems. Wetlands are land areas soaked with water, while mangroves are a specific type of coastal wetland made up of salt-tolerant trees. Both protect against floods, provide clean water, and store carbon, but they face severe destruction from human development and pollution.
Why this is in the news
Two dates put wetlands and mangroves back in the headlines. On 5 June 2026, World Environment Day, India designated the Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary (Surha Tal) in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, as its 100th Ramsar site, a wetland of international importance. And 26 July is World Mangrove Day, the UNESCO day for the conservation of mangrove ecosystems.
The celebration sits on top of an uncomfortable finding. In July 2025, the Ramsar Convention's Global Wetland Outlook 2025 reported that the world has lost close to a quarter of its wetlands since 1970, and that they are vanishing about three times faster than forests. India's own numbers are mixed: its Ramsar list has grown quickly, but its mangrove cover barely moved in the last official count. So the question this piece answers is simple. What is the difference between the two, why do they matter, and what is putting them under threat.
What exactly happened
India reaching 100 Ramsar sites is a real milestone. As of July 2026, that list covers roughly 13.85 lakh hectares across the country. Tamil Nadu has the most sites at 20, followed by Uttar Pradesh. On the global tally India now trails only the United Kingdom and Mexico by number of Ramsar sites.
On mangroves, the most recent official figure is from the India State of Forest Report 2023 (ISFR 2023), the 18th such biennial report, released in December 2024 by the Forest Survey of India. It puts India's mangrove cover at 4,991.68 sq km, about 0.15 percent of the country's geographical area. West Bengal alone holds about 42 percent of that cover, mainly the Sundarbans, followed by Gujarat and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Key Takeaways
- Mangroves are a type of wetland: Mangroves are salt-tolerant coastal wetlands found in tropical and subtropical regions. While every mangrove is a wetland, not every wetland is a mangrove.
- Wetlands are nature's kidneys: They naturally filter pollutants, recharge groundwater, regulate floods, and support rich biodiversity.
- Mangroves are nature's coastal shield: They reduce the impact of cyclones, storm surges, coastal erosion, and even tsunamis while providing breeding grounds for marine life.
- Unique adaptations help mangroves survive. Pneumatophores (air roots), salt filtration mechanisms, and vivipary enable mangroves to thrive in saline, waterlogged environments.
- Vital carbon sinks: Wetlands, especially peatlands and mangroves, store enormous amounts of carbon. Their degradation releases this stored carbon, accelerating climate change.
- India now has 100 Ramsar Sites: India expanded its Ramsar network from 26 sites in 2013 to 100 sites in June 2026, reflecting stronger recognition of wetland conservation. However, effective management and restoration remain key challenges.
- Wetlands continue to decline globally: According to the Global Wetland Outlook 2025, nearly 22 percent of the world's wetlands have been lost since 1970, and around one-fourth of the remaining wetlands are in poor ecological condition.
- Major conservation initiatives: The Government of India launched the Amrit Dharohar Scheme for sustainable wetland conservation and the MISHTI (Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes) programme for mangrove restoration on 5 June 2023.
- Frequently asked in exams.Latest Wetland Sites, Ramsar Convention, Montreux Record, Wetlands Rules 2017, MISHTI, Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC), and the distribution of major mangroves in India
How we reach 100 Ramsar Sites
The framework for all of this is the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty signed in the city of Ramsar, Iran, on 2 February 1971 and in force from 1975. It commits member countries to the conservation and wise use"Wise use" is the Ramsar principle of maintaining a wetland's ecological character while still allowing sustainable human use, rather than fencing it off completely. of wetlands. India joined in 1982 and designated its first two sites that year: Chilika Lake in Odisha and Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan. There are now 172 parties worldwide.
India's domestic law has evolved alongside. The National Wetland Conservation Programme dates back to 1987. The current rulebook is the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, which replaced the 2010 version. The 2017 Rules shifted the main responsibility to the states, asking each to set up a State Wetlands Authority headed by the state environment minister, and left a central National Wetlands Committee in a purely advisory role. Wetlands and lakes are funded through the centrally sponsored National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA).
The concept: what is a wetland, what is a mangrove
Start with the wetland. A wetland is land that is covered or saturated by water, permanently or seasonally, so that its soil and plant life are shaped by water rather than by dry ground. It is an ecotoneAn ecotone is a transition zone between two ecosystems, here between land and water, which is why wetlands hold species from both., a transition zone between land and water. Under the Ramsar definition it stretches from marshes, rivers, lakes and peatlands all the way to shallow marine areas where the water at low tide is no deeper than six metres. Wetland plants are hydrophytesHydrophytes are plants adapted to grow in waterlogged or aquatic conditions. growing in waterlogged soils. That is a very broad tent.
A mangrove lives inside that tent. It is a specific type of coastal wetland: a salt-tolerant forest of trees and shrubs that grows in the tidal zone of sheltered tropical and subtropical coasts, estuaries, mudflats and creeks. Mangrove plants are halophytesHalophytes are salt-loving plants that can survive in salty, brackish water where ordinary plants would die., able to survive daily flooding by salt water. To do that they have grown some remarkable equipment: salt-filtering roots and salt-secreting leaves, breathing roots called pneumatophoresPneumatophores are specialised roots that grow upward out of the waterlogged mud to take in air, since the soil itself has almost no oxygen. that stick up out of the airless mud, and viviparityViviparity in mangroves means the seed germinates while still attached to the parent tree, so the seedling can root quickly once it drops into salty water., where the seed sprouts on the parent tree before it ever falls.
| Feature | Wetland (the umbrella term) | Mangrove (one type within it) |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | All water-logged land: rivers, lakes, marshes, peatlands, estuaries, paddy, shallow sea | Only coastal, tidal, salt-water forests |
| Water | Fresh, brackish or saline | Mainly saline and brackish, tidal |
| Where | Everywhere, coast to high mountains | Tropical and subtropical coasts, roughly between 25°N and 25°S |
| Typical plants | Hydrophytes of many kinds | Halophyte trees such as Rhizophora and Avicennia |
| Signature trait | Filters water, stores flood, recharges groundwater | Breathing roots, salt glands, viviparous seeds, storm buffer |
How they work in practice
Both ecosystems earn their keep by doing quiet physical work. A wetland slows and holds water. When rain or a river surges, the wetland spreads the flow, drops sediment, and releases the stored water slowly afterwards, which is why wetlands are called natural sponges and "kidneys of the Earth". Bacteria and plants in the mud break down pollutants, so the water leaving is cleaner than the water arriving. The same standing water recharges the groundwater below.
A mangrove adds a coastal defence layer. Its dense tangle of prop roots absorbs wave energy, so a belt of mangrove can cut the force of a storm surge sharply and shield the farmland and villages behind it from flooding and salt. The roots also trap sediment and hold the shoreline together against erosion, and the calm water between them is a nursery where young fish, crabs and prawns grow, which feeds coastal fisheries.
The institutional plumbing in India runs across several bodies. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) sets policy. The Forest Survey of India measures mangrove cover every two years in the ISFR. The Space Applications Centre of ISRO maps the full wetland inventory from satellites. On the ground, State Wetlands Authorities are meant to notify and manage individual wetlands, with NPCA money behind them.
Share of India's mangrove cover, by state (ISFR 2023)
On area, India's full wetland stock (beyond just the Ramsar-listed ones) is far larger. The National Wetland Decadal Change Atlas of 2017 mapped about 15.98 million hectares of wetlands, roughly 4.86 percent of the country's area. The updated Space Applications Centre atlas of 2024 raised that estimate to about 16.89 million hectares, or 5.12 percent, mainly by mapping many small wetlands the earlier surveys missed.
Who is affected and how
The people closest to these ecosystems feel the losses first. Fisherfolk depend on mangrove nurseries for their catch, so thinning mangroves means fewer fish. Coastal farmers lose the salt barrier that keeps their soil and groundwater fresh, and their fields turn saline. Villages and cities on the coast and on floodplains lose a free flood and cyclone defence, raising the bill for concrete alternatives and for disaster relief. Inland, cities that have built over urban wetlands, from Bengaluru to Chennai, have seen worse flooding as a direct result.
Migratory birds lose stopovers on their flyways. State governments carry the duty to protect and the cost of restoration, while the union government and its schemes provide funds and targets. And because peatlands and mangroves are dense carbon stores, their loss adds to everyone's climate bill by releasing carbon that had been locked away for centuries.
Exam relevance
Where it maps
- RBI Grade B: ESI paper, sustainable development and environment current affairs; general awareness.
- NABARD Grade A: Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) and general awareness, given the link to coastal livelihoods, fisheries and MGNREGS convergence in MISHTI.
- UPSC CSE: GS Paper 3 (Environment, conservation, biodiversity) and Prelims (Ramsar, Montreux Record, schemes). Prelims has repeatedly tested the Montreux Record and Ramsar facts.
- NABARD Grade A Answer Writing Q. Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, yet they continue to face severe degradation. Discuss the ecological, economic, and social significance of wetlands. Also examine the major threats and conservation measures adopted in India. (15 Marks, 600 Words)
- NABARD Grade A Answer Writing Q. Mangrove ecosystems play a crucial role in enhancing coastal resilience and supporting the blue economy. Discuss the importance of mangroves in India. Examine the major threats to mangrove ecosystems and suggest suitable conservation strategies. (15 Marks, 600 Words)
- NABARD Grade A Answer Writing Q. "Wetlands and mangroves are natural infrastructure for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction." Differentiate between wetlands and mangroves. Discuss their ecological significance and examine the challenges associated with their conservation in India. (15 Marks, 600 Words)
- NABARD Grade A Answer Writing Q. Evaluate the role of wetlands and mangroves in biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, and sustainable livelihoods. Also discuss the Government initiatives for their protection. (15 Marks, 600 Words)
Frequently asked questions
All mangroves are wetlands, because a mangrove is a coastal, tidal, salt-water wetland. The reverse is not true. A lake, a river, a peat bog or a paddy field is a wetland but not a mangrove. Mangroves are one specialised branch of a very large family that grows only on warm coasts.
A Ramsar site is a wetland recognised as internationally important under the 1971 Ramsar Convention. It is a designation, not a fresh legal fence. A wildlife sanctuary is a domestic protected area under the Wild Life (Protection) Act. A single place can be both, as several Indian sites are.
Mangroves lock carbon into deep, waterlogged soil that does not rot, so it stays trapped for a very long time. Wetlands International estimates mangroves store around four times more carbon than other tropical forests. Clearing them releases that stored carbon, which is why their loss counts twice against the climate.
Both answers point to the Sundarbans in West Bengal. It is the world's largest single block of tidal mangrove forest and, as the Sundarban Wetland, India's largest Ramsar site by area at about 4.23 lakh hectares. It is also famous as tiger habitat.
Both were launched on 5 June 2023. Amrit Dharohar focuses on conserving India's Ramsar wetlands through local community participation and eco-tourism. MISHTI (Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes) funds mangrove planting along the coast and on saltpan land, using convergence with MGNREGS and the CAMPA fund.
It is a watchlist within the Ramsar system for sites where ecological damage has happened or is likely, usually from pollution, development or interference. India has two on it: Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan and Loktak Lake in Manipur. Chilika Lake was once listed but was removed after restoration.
Yes. The Global Wetland Outlook 2025 estimates the world has lost about 22 percent of its wetlands since 1970, roughly 411 million hectares, and that they are disappearing about three times faster than forests. Around a quarter of the wetlands that remain are in poor ecological condition.
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