Just as forests are called the ‘lungs of the earth’, wetlands are the ‘kidneys’ that regulate water and filter waste from the landscape. Wetlands include mangroves, peatlands and marshes, rivers and lakes, deltas, floodplains and flooded forests, rice-fields, and even coral reefs.
Wetlands exist in every country and in every climatic zone, from the polar regions to the tropics, and from high altitudes to dry regions. In India, around 4.63% of the geographical area is wetlands. A total of 757,060 wetlands have been mapped in the country.
