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Wetlands and Ramsar sites

Wetlands and lakes as places and as a category of law: Ramsar sites and the wise use a listing commits India to, the rules that protect a wetland at home, and the encroachment and floodplains that decide its fate. Prelims has matched wetlands to their States and asked what the Montreux Record implies.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2022: matching named wetlands with their States
  • Prelims 2022: the wetland function that makes wetlands the kidneys of the Earth
  • Prelims 2014: what the Montreux Record implies

Showing 1 of 3 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 July 2026.Show all

India's Ramsar sites

Copy link to India's Ramsar sites

Prelims and Mains

A Ramsar listing is a promise about how a wetland will be used rather than a fence around it, so what it changes on the ground depends entirely on Indian law.

  • A Ramsar site listing commits a country to the wise use of the site, and is not by itself a protection order under Indian law.
  • Domestic protection comes from the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules and from whatever protected area category the wetland happens to fall inside.
  • Glaw Lake was designated India's 101st Ramsar site, and Arunachal Pradesh's first.
  • It lies inside the Kamlang Tiger Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in the Eastern Himalaya, fed by perennial mountain streams.
  • More than 150 tree species and 49 orchid species are recorded at the site and in its catchment.

What changed

  1. 3 Aug 2026

    PIB, 3 Aug 2026: Glaw Lake becomes India's 101st Ramsar site (opens in a new tab)

  2. 1 Jul 2026Update

    • The official count of India's Ramsar sites is now cited as 100, against 24 in 2014. (Single source; the check against the Ramsar list is in the filing brief.)

    The Hindu, 1 Jul 2026: Centre exploring reintroduction of tigers in suitable landscapes in Bengal (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2019: the Ramsar Convention and the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010

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