Soaring temperature causes polar ice to melt and sea levels to rise, which may eventually lead to the death of wetlands. But what is heartening is how people across India have come together to save wetlands Climate change is also taking its toll. Increase in temperature causes polar ice to melt and sea levels to rise. This leads to shallow wetlands being swamped and mangrove trees being submerged. Sadly, other wetlands - estuaries, floodplains, and marshes - are being destroyed through drought. The good news is people are fighting to save wetlands. Mumbai’s “Mangrove Warriors” are getting together to save the mangroves from being uprooted for buildings. “No reclamation – the process of filling portions of the sea to “create” land” – they say. Mangroves protect the land and the sea and the diverse forms of life in the wetlands, said Darryl D’Monte, a noted environmentalist. “Apart from coastal wetlands, there are inland wetlands — the smaller lakes, ponds, wells. These have suffered too, as the city continued its massive growth spree,” explained Stalin D, an expert on wetland protection. Filling up waterbodies has led to regular flooding in the city. In 2016, when a construction company tried to intrude on the Seawoods Lake in Nerul, local residents Sunil and Shruti Agarwal decided to fight against encroachment. “Though there are laws that protect the mangroves and wetlands, the authorities take action only when they get a complaint,” they said. In 2012, the Maharashtra government set up a Mangrove Cell to protect, conserve and manage the mangroves of the state. A 2017 Forest Survey of India said Maharashtra’s mangrove cover increased by 37% since 2015. In Kerala, the government brought rules that ban encroachment of wetlands. The rules prohibit solid-waste dumping, discharge of untreated waste and effluents from industries, cities, and other human settlements into wetlands. The government has started Haritha Keralam Mission (Greening Kerala) to conserve and protect wetlands. People’s groups such as the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad are proposing a wetlands management plan for each wetland in the state. In Kolkata, conservation journalist Prerna Singh Bindra launched her book The Vanishing: India’s Wildlife Crisis , and said, “The wetlands in Bengal that were once home to the Bengal tiger are now being treated as wastelands. They are not only vital from the point of view of conserving biodiversity, but perform crucial ecosystem services — they control flooding, recharge groundwater, provide for local livelihoods (fisheries), store carbon. We should be on an overdrive to protect wetlands, not dilute rules that regulate their protection.” But, she is also happy that we have managed to save a lot of our wild animals. She applauds the fact that in India tigers, leopards elephants and bears continue to persist among a human population of 1.3 billion — about 17% of the world population. Europe lost most of its predators and big animals. For instance, the wolf and lynx are extinct in Britain. In the 19th century, India lost just one big mammal — the Asiatic cheetah which went extinct in 1947. So, if we work constantly, we can save our wetlands. Newspapers, television programmes and social media must create awareness about nature, she said. There should be lots of stories that will help us understand the danger of not protecting wetlands. The media should question the government for allowing projects that decimate our environment.