NEW DELHI, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- India's total number of Ramsar sites has reached 103, with the latest additions of Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh and Sauj Jheel in Mainpuri district, Uttar Pradesh, Bhupender Yadav, the country's minister for environment, forest and climate change, announced on Thursday.
This milestone highlights the importance the government has been placing on wetlands in conserving biodiversity, enhancing water and climate security, and sustaining local livelihoods, said Yadav in a social media post.
He added that these additions reaffirmed India's ongoing efforts to conserve its rich wetland ecosystems and strengthen the ecological, climatic and livelihood benefits they provide.
A Ramsar site is a wetland of global importance designated under the "Ramsar Convention," an intergovernmental environmental treaty signed in February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. ■
