Question: In which of the following state Asan Conservation Reserve is located?
a) Karnataka
b) Maharashtra
c) Kerala
d) Uttarakhand
Answer: (d)
Related Facts:-
- On 15 October 2020; Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced that Asan Conservation Reserve has become Uttarakhand’s first Ramsar site.
- The Reserve is located on the banks of Yamuna River near Dehradun district in Garhwali region of the Himalayan state.
- With this declaration, this reserve became the Wetland of International Importance.
- With this, the number of Ramsar sites in India goes up to 38, the highest in South Asia and Uttarakhand gets its first Ramsar site.
- Asan Conservation Reserve cleared five out of the nine criteria needed to be declared as a Ramsar site and get identified as a Wetland of International Importance.
- It cleared the category on species and ecological communities, one on water-birds and another on fish.
- The criteria cleared by Asan Conservation Reserve to get Ramsar site tag to include that-
i. It supports vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered species.
ii. It supports populations of plant and/or animal species important for maintaining the biological diversity,
iii. It supports plant and/or animal species at a critical stage in their life cycles and-
iv. It is an important source of food for fishes, spawning ground, nursery and/or migration path on which fish stocks, either within the wetland or elsewhere, depend.
- Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
- Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty adopted on February 2, 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar.
- The name of the Convention is usually written Convention on Wetlands.
- The Convention on Wetlands came into force for India on February 1, 1982.
- Those wetlands which are of international importance are declared as Ramsar sites.
- Asan Conservation Reserve:
- Asan Conservation reserve is spread across 4.44 sq km area in Dehradun district on the banks of Yamuna River.
- Asan receives about 40 migratory species, including Rudy Shelduck, Common coot, Gadwall, Kingfisher, Indian cormorant, Baer’s pochard, Northern pintail, Bar-headed goose.
- Many endangered birds are found here and some even migrate to the Reserve, making it an ecologically important site.
By – Rajesh Tripathi