Majnu Ka Tilla Refugee Camp Children Visited Yamuna Biodiversity Park on World Wetland Day

World Patrika : 3rd feb,2017 : Centre for Social Development and Research Foundation celebrated World Wetland Day on 2^nd February 2017 at Yamuna Biodiversity Park (YBP). The program was organized by National Museum of natural History (NMNH) in which round 200 students from various colleges of Delhi University and under-privileged school children participated along with noted journalists, researchers, academicians, engineers and nature enthusiasts. This year’s theme was “Wetlands for Disaster Risk Reduction”. All the speakers have emphasized the importance of wetlands for sustainable future and disaster management. A team from CSDR Foundation Lead by Mr. Vivek Sharma, Managing Director helped under privileged children from Majnu Ka Tila Refugee Camp in the process and proved to be a good motivator for all of them.

Photo by Anil Nagpal

Professor C.R. Babu, Delhi University beseeched that it is our duty to conserve wetlands to secure our future. He also shared that how wetlands can be used to treat sewage water without any expenditure of energy and with low cost, as has been done in Neela Hauz Biodiversity Park. Professor T. R. Rao, Noted ecologist and the chief guest of the function pointed out that one should adopt wetlands of their surroundings and join hands for its conservation and restoration. The wetlands of Yamuna Biodiversity Parks which are restored to bring back the native flora and fauna of the river Yamuna were the main attraction. Two wetlands of different depth, length and dimensions have been developed here keeping in consideration on both the physical and biological variables. A narrow shallow wetland of about 1.8 Km long is created with the objective of rain water harvesting and to increase the biodiversity in terms of aquatic vegetation which in turn provided suitable habitat for many insects, fishes, birds and reptiles. Restoration of native Tamarix-Phragmites forest all along the wetland has brought back an important bird species Black crowned night heron, which once existed in River Yamuna and its floodplains but vanished. Each year thousands of night heron are making nest and successfully breeding in the Tamarix- Phragmites forest of this wetlands. Birds such as darter, purple heron, Grey heron and cormorants are also using this habitat to make their nest creating a huge heronry. Similarly, a deep wetland of about seven acres has been developed which attracts numerous migratory birds such as Common Red Pochard,  Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintails, Great Cormorants, Painted Stork, Gadwals, Teals etc., from various regions of the world. Importance of native Flora and Fauna and their dependence on wetlands in the park was discussed.