World wetland day is celebrated every year all across the world to commemorate the Convention on Wetlands means the Ramsar Convention which was held on 2nd of February in 1971 in the city of Ramsar, Iran at the Caspian Sea coasts. It was started celebrating for the first time in the year 1997.
World Wetlands Day 2019
World Wetlands Day 2019 was celebrated on Saturday, 2nd February.
‘Ameenpur Utsav’ was celebrated at Ameenpur Lake, Hyderabad on the occasion of World Wetlands Day. In 2016, the government of Telangana declared the lake as Biodiversity Heritage Site which is the only biodiversity site in the country. The celebration started at 09:30 AM on 02nd Feb. and included various competitions like drawing & painting, singing, speech, and dramas.
Manipur also observed the World Wetlands Day at Sendra, Bishanpur District. A painting competition was organised where more than 100 students from various schools participated in the event. The winners of the competition were given rewards of Rs. 3000, 2000 and 1000 for the first, second and third position respectively along with the participation certificates.
Children from the city of Tshwane, South Africa celebrated the day at Colbyn Wetland Nature Reserve. There were around 200 children who visited the reserve and learned more about the importance of wetlands and how it protects us from global warming and climate change.
How World Wetlands Day Is Celebrated
It is celebrated by gathering together with common people, government agencies, NGOs, non-government organizations and people of all the community to enhance the public awareness towards the significance of wetland. To celebrate this event, variety of programs like seminars, lectures, nature walks, sampan race, poster exhibitions, video films screening, slide shows based on the wetland, art and quiz competitions, painting competition, photography exhibition, community cleanup, interviews on radio and television and etc takes place at the national level at many places. Various other new wetland policies and new Ramsar sites gets launch at this day.
Why World Wetlands Day Is Celebrated
The Ramsar Convention offers an international structure in order to globally support the conservation and sustainable management of the wetlands. It is celebrated to make aware the public, discus the value of wetlands, its beneficial aspects as well as to promote its conservation and use for enhancing the overall level of the human health, growth and development. The event celebration plays a great role in making the healthy wetlands in order to deliver the worth ecosystem service to benefit the common people. The demands of water required for growing crops, energy supply and various needs of the industry are also focused during the celebration. It is celebrated to promote the proper use of wetlands and their resources.
World Wetlands Day Celebrations In India
World Wetlands Day is celebrated every year in Ahmedabad, India by organizing several activities involving both children and adults.
It is also celebrated at the WWF-India Secretariat, New Delhi to promote the common people understandings about the importance of link between wetlands and water as “without water there will be no wetlands – and without wetlands there will be no water!”.
It is also celebrated in the Jammu and Kashmir, at Mansar Wetland (a Ramsar site) with the involvement of the Department of Wildlife Protection and Department of Environment and Remote Sensing. The event is celebrated by organizing a symposium (related to event) in the presence of Honorable Minister of State for Forests, Environment and Ecology. The event is celebrated by the participation of school students, conservationists, members of panchayat, academicians, scientists and common masses.
WWF-India organizes a full day program at Asan Barrage, Dehradun, run by schools students, in association with the Samvedi and Chakrata Forest Division and Uttarakhand Forest Department.
WWF-India organizes program for school students (quiz and painting competitions) in Himachal Pradesh in association with the State Council for Environment Science and Technology and Wildlife Wing, Himachal Pradesh Forest Department.
It is also celebrated at various places in India such as Harike (a bird sanctuary in Punjab and a Ramsar site), Surajpur wetland (Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh), Bharatpur (Keoladeo National Park), Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary (U.P.) and etc.
World Wetlands Day Themes
The themes of the World Wetlands Day celebrations from 1997 to 2021 are listed below:
• The theme for the world wetland day 1997 was “Benefits of Wetlands to the Human Population”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 1998 was “Conserving wetlands to ensure availability of clean water for all”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 1999 was “People and Wetlands: the Vital Link”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2000 was “Celebrating Our Wetlands of International Importance”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2001 was “Wetland world – A world to discover!”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2002 was “Wetlands: Water, Life, and Culture”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2003 was “No wetlands – no water”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2004 was “From Mountains to the Sea – Wetlands at Work for Us”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2005 was “Cultural and biological diversity in wetlands” and slogan was “There’s wealth in wetland diversity – don’t lose it”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2006 was “Wetlands as a tool in poverty alleviation”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2007 was “Fish for tomorrow?”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2008 was “Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2009 was “Upstream-Downstream: Wetlands connect us all”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2010 was “Wetlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2011 was “wetlands and forests – forests for water and wetlands”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2012 was “Wetlands and Tourism”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2013 was “Wetlands take care of water”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2014 was “Wetlands and Agriculture”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2015 was “Wetlands for Our Future”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2016 was “Wetlands for our Future: Sustainable Livelihoods”.
• The theme for the world wetland day 2017 was “Wetlands for Disaster Risk Reduction”.
• The theme of 2018 was “Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future”.
• The theme of 2019 is “Wetlands and Climate Change”.
• The theme of 2020 will be “Wetlands and Biodiversity”.
• The theme of 2021 will be “Wetlands and Water”.