Wetlands Conservation

We are indebted to all the individual authors for their expertise and contributing valuable information in form of chapters to complete this book. We would like to express our gratitude to our Publisher Wiley Blackwell, John Wiley & Sons for accepting the book proposal and for their continuous support, encouragement. We acknowledge and express our appreciation for all reviewers, Content Refinement Specialist Vimali Joseph and Senior Commissioning Editor Andrew Harrison, Senior Managing Editor Rosie Hayden from Wiley for their valuable constructive suggestions, continuous support and encouragement.

Date: July 1 2021

EditorsSanjeev Sharma & Pardeep Singh

Thattantavide Anju Department of Plant Science School of Biological Sciences Central University of Kerala Kasaragod Kerala India

Vijay Archa Department of Plant Science School of Biological Sciences Central University of Kerala Kasaragod Kerala India

Alvia Aslam Department of Environmental Science Central University of South Bihar Gaya Bihar India

Sami Ullah Bhat Department of Environmental Science School of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Kashmir Hazratbal Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir India

Moharana Choudhury Voice of Environment (VoE) Guwahati Assam India

Poulomi Chakraborty Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur Kharagpur West Bengal India

Meenakshi Chaurasia Department of Botany University of Delhi New Delhi India

Shahid Ahmad Dar Department of Environmental Science School of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Kashmir Hazratbal Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir India

Kausik Ghosh Department of Geography Vidyasagar University Midnapore West Bengal India

Ginkuntla Saikiran Goud Department of Plant Science School of Biological Sciences Central University of Kerala Kasaragod Kerala India

Shalini Gupta School of Environment and Sustainable Development Central University of Gujarat Gandhinagar Gujarat India

Zoha Jafar Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi India

K.C. Jisha Department of Botany MES Asmabi College, P. Vemballur Kerala India

Arun Kumar Kashyap Department of Biotechnology Government E. Raghavendra Rao PG Science College Bilaspur Chhattisgarh India

Komal Department of Higher Education Government Degree College Bani Jammu and Kashmir India

Ajay Kumar Department of Plant Science School of Biological Sciences Central University of Kerala Kasaragod Kerala India

Deepak Kumar United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) New Delhi India

Raj Kumar Centre for Study of Regional Development School of Social Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India

Rakesh Kumar Department of Environmental Sciences University of Jammu Jammu Jammu and Kashmir India

Sushil Kumar Department of Botany Government Degree College Ramnagar Jammu and Kashmir India

Vijay Kumar Department of Applied Sciences & Humanities Faculty of Engineering & Technology Rama University Kanpur Uttar Pradesh India

Sughosh Madhav School of Environmental Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India

Gauhar Mahmood Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi India

Shilpi Nagar Department of Environmental Studies University of Delhi New Delhi India and Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) New Delhi India

Sadaf Nazneen Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi India

Purushothaman Parthasarathy Department of Civil Engineering College of Engineering and Technology Faculty of Engineering and Technology SRM Institute of Science and Technology Chengalpattu Tamil Nadu India

Kajal Patel Department of Botany University of New Delhi New Delhi India

Mahika Phartiyal Centre for the Study of Regional Development School of Social Science Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India

Jos T. Puthur Plant Physiology and Biochemistry Division Department of Botany University of Calicut Malappuram Kerala India

Arun M. Radhakrishnan Department of Plant Science School of Biological Sciences Central University of Kerala Kasaragod Kerala India

Nirala Ramchiary School of Life Sciences Laboratory of Translational and Evolutionary Genomics Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India

Deeksha Ranjan Department of Applied Sciences & Humanities Faculty of Engineering & Technology Rama University Kanpur Uttar Pradesh India

Rajesh Kumar Ranjan Department of Environmental Science Central University of South Bihar Gaya Bihar India

Irfan Rashid Department of Geoinformatics School of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Kashmir Hazratbal Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir India

Rohit Rattan Western Himalayas Conservation Programme World Wide Fund for Nature India New Delhi India

Krishna Rawat School of Environment and Sustainable Development Central University of Gujarat Gandhinagar Gujarat India

Vijay Saigal Department of Law University of Jammu Jammu Jammu and Kashmir India

Bharti Sharma School of Biosciences and Biotechnology BGSB University Rajouri Jammu and Kashmir India

Sanjeev Sharma Centre for the Study of Regional Development School of Social Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India

Sudeep Shukla Environment Pollution Analysis Lab Bhiwadi Alwar Rajasthan India

Pardeep Singh Department of Environmental Studies PGDAV College University of Delhi New Delhi India

Jitendra Kumar Singh School of Environment and Sustainable Development Central University of Gujarat Gandhinagar Gujarat India

Shuchita Singh Lachoo Memorial College of Science and Technology Jodhpur Rajasthan India

Indu Tripathi Department of Environmental Studies University of Delhi New Delhi India

Khushaboo Verma Faculty of Education Banaras Hindu University Varanasi Uttar Pradesh India

Reeta Verma School of Environment and Sustainable Development Central University of Gujarat Gandhinagar Gujarat India

Vidya P. Warrier Department of Plant Science School of Biological Sciences Central University of Kerala Kasaragod Kerala India and Department of Biotechnology Indian Institute of Technology Madras Chennai Tamil Nadu India

Amit Kumar Yadav School of Environment and Sustainable Development Central University of Gujarat Gandhinagar Gujarat India

Sanjeev Sharma1*, Mahika Phartiyal1, Sughosh Madhav2, and Pardeep Singh3

1 Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

2 School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

3 Department of Environmental Studies, PGDAV College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

* Sanjeev Sharma, Email: sanjeevsharma@mail.jnu.ac.in; Cell: +91 9418613054

Wetlands form a crucial part of the socio‐ecological system as they are a storehouse of numerous ecosystems services. Wetland systems manage hydrological processes and preserve the natural ecological system to regulate the ecological balance and well‐being of humanity. Economic interests of the environment of the wetlands have not been recognised yet by policy planners and decision‐makers, neither at the global level, nor at regional levels. Wetlands are distributed in all geographical regions and climate zones of the planet earth. Globally and nationally, many attempts have been made to assess and identify the wetlands systems (Hu et al., 2017; Cowardin et al. 1979; Briggs 1981; Paijmans et al. 1985; Scott 1989; Gopal 1977; Gopal and Sah 1995). These wetlands systems are the most resourceful and important ecosystem on terrestrial as well as aquatic systems. Various elements of wetland, including geomorphology, hydrology, vegetation, water chemistry or substratum characteristics, have been emphasised by different classification schemes.