In December 2024, a survey team trekked more than 16 km through the Kamlang Tiger Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary to reach Glaw Lake, tucked 1,168 metres above sea level in the Eastern Himalayas.
Fed by mountain streams and surrounded by thick vegetation, the freshwater lake is also regarded as sacred by the Mishmi community.
Less than two years later, on 3 August 2026, Glaw Lake became India’s 101st Ramsar Site and Arunachal Pradesh’s first Wetland of International Importance. India’s Ramsar network had grown from 26 sites in 2014 to 101 in 2026.
You may have seen announcements like this before: a lake or wetland receives a Ramsar tag, India’s count goes up by one, and the designation is celebrated as a conservation milestone.
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Glaw Lake becomes Arunachal Pradesh’s First Ramsar Site; India’s Ramsar Sites tally reaches 101
Union Environment Minister @byadavbjp announces the landmark addition, highlighting India’s commitment to Wetland Conservation, Biodiversity Protection and… https://t.co/U5LMYrelKt
— PIB India (@PIB_India) August 4, 2026
But what exactly has the wetland gained?
What does it take to qualify for the tag? What changes after it receives one? And what happens to all the wetlands that may never make it onto the list?
To answer that, it helps to first understand what a Ramsar Site actually is.
So, what does ‘Ramsar’ actually mean?
The name comes from Ramsar, a city in Iran, where the Ramsar Convention, formally known as the Convention on Wetlands, was adopted in 1971. India became a Contracting Party on 1 February 1982.
The Convention provides a framework for the conservation and “wise use” of wetlands and their resources.
For a wetland to make it onto the Ramsar List, it must meet at least one of nine criteria relating to ecological, botanical, zoological, limnological or hydrological importance.
That may sound technical. In simpler terms, a wetland can qualify because it is a rare or unique type, because it supports threatened species, or because large populations of wetland-dependent animals rely on it.
But calling a wetland important is only the beginning. That importance has to be documented.
The country proposing the site has to define its boundaries and record its ecological character through a Ramsar Information Sheet.
That means answering some very practical questions. Where does the wetland begin and end? Which species depend on it? How does water move through it? What makes the site ecologically important? And what needs to remain intact for the wetland to continue functioning as it does?
Answering those questions takes scientific information, mapping, monitoring and management.
Now that we know what Ramsar looks for, Glaw Lake gives us a useful example of what that process looks like on the ground.
Why did Glaw Lake make it onto the Ramsar List?
Glaw Lake lies within the Kamlang Tiger Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh.
More than 150 tree species and 49 orchid species have been recorded within the wetland and its catchment. The wider Kamlang landscape supports tiger, leopard, clouded leopard and snow leopard, while the lake provides habitat for water-dependent species, including the critically endangered white-bellied heron.
But a list of species tells us only one part of why a wetland matters.
On 18 and 19 December 2024, a team from Wetlands International South Asia, accompanied by members of the Kamlang Tiger Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary Forest Department, carried out a scoping survey of the lake.
After trekking more than 16 km through rugged terrain, the team documented its ecological, hydrological and socio-economic characteristics.
They were looking at the lake as a whole: its biodiversity, its water systems, the landscape around it and the ways people relate to it.
The survey also recorded Glaw Lake’s cultural importance. The Mishmi community regards the lake as sacred.
That combination matters. Wetlands can be wildlife habitats and water systems, while also being deeply connected to people’s lives, livelihoods and cultural relationships with a landscape.
Glaw Lake shows how a wetland can qualify for international recognition. It also raises the next question: what about ecologically important wetlands that never receive the tag?
What about all the wetlands outside the Ramsar List?
India now has 101 Ramsar Sites. That number does not represent all the wetlands worth protecting.
The Ramsar Convention itself emphasises national wetland inventories, which help governments identify, document and prioritise wetlands that may qualify for designation.
West Bengal offers an easy way to understand the difference between being ecologically valuable and being on the Ramsar List.
The state already has Ramsar Sites. The East Calcutta Wetlands were designated in 2002, while the Sundarban Wetland was added in 2019.
But West Bengal also has many other wetlands, ponds, floodplains, marshes and water bodies that sit outside the list.
The wetland is not an untouched wilderness. It is an urban ecological system in which wastewater, fisheries, agriculture and livelihoods have historically been connected. Photograph: (Aneesa PA)
Their importance does not disappear because they lack an international tag.
The East Kolkata Wetlands themselves show why the way we picture a “valuable wetland” can be misleading.
This is an urban ecological system where wastewater, fisheries, agriculture and livelihoods have historically been connected. Its Ramsar description notes that its resource-recovery system helps treat Kolkata’s wastewater while supporting fish farming and agriculture, providing livelihoods to tens of thousands of people.
In everyday terms, this means a wetland can sit beside a densely populated city, help deal with its wastewater, support food production and sustain families.
A wetland does not have to be remote or untouched to matter.
So why does every important wetland not become a Ramsar Site?
Because the designation requires enough scientific information to demonstrate that a site meets one or more Ramsar criteria. Its boundaries must be defined, its ecological character documented and its management needs understood.
The national authority then prepares the Ramsar Information Sheet and submits the required information for designation.
And even when all of that is done and the tag arrives, conservation does not end there.
What happens after the tag?
India’s Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017 require states to undertake measures including delineating wetland boundaries and zones of influence, identifying prohibited, regulated and permitted activities, preparing integrated management plans and monitoring the risk of adverse changes in ecological character.
That language can sound distant from everyday life, but the problems it refers to are easy to picture.
Pollution may enter the water. Invasive plants may spread across its surface. Construction can alter the surrounding landscape. Tourism can increase. The way a wetland is managed can affect people who depend on it for fishing, farming or other livelihoods.
A Ramsar designation tells us that a wetland is internationally important. Keeping it healthy requires decisions long after the announcement is made.
This is where conservation ecologist Dibyadeep Chatterjee says the conversation needs to become more grounded.
Speaking to The Better India, Chatterjee argues that conservation should account for what happens after an intervention, rather than stopping at the most visible part of the problem.
For him, the starting point is mindful conservation.
Conservation measures should not be treated as isolated actions, he suggests. Whether the intervention involves removing invasive plants, restoring a wetland or restricting human activity, it is necessary to think through the ecological, social and practical consequences that follow.
Take water hyacinth.
Assam-based ‘Kumbhi Kagaz’ is turning invasive water hyacinth into eco-friendly, chemical-free paper.
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HCM Dr. @himantabiswa extends his best wishes. pic.twitter.com/PIMkAstuy2
— Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) March 2, 2025
Across wetlands in states such as Assam and West Bengal, invasive weeds can spread rapidly. A dense cover of water hyacinth can obstruct sunlight, affect oxygen conditions, alter the functioning of aquatic ecosystems and change habitats for native species.
Removing it may look like the obvious solution.
Chatterjee asks what happens next.
If a wetland produces tonnes of invasive biomass, where does all that material go once it has been removed?
“Removal is not enough,” is the central idea behind his take.
The extracted vegetation needs to be handled through sustainable, standardised and preferably zero-waste systems that can convert biomass into useful products or resources. Otherwise, an effort to solve one ecological problem can create a waste-management problem elsewhere.
For wetlands surrounded by people, that kind of thinking becomes especially important because ecological management and everyday life often overlap.
For Chatterjee, this is particularly important in wetlands surrounded by people, where ecological management cannot be separated from questions of waste, livelihoods and the realities of everyday life.
A conservation intervention, in other words, should be evaluated not only by whether it removes an immediate threat, but also by whether the solution itself remains sustainable after the visible work is done.
A remote lake and a city wetland face different pressures
Glaw Lake and an urban wetland in West Bengal may seem to have very little in common.
Their differences show why wetland conservation cannot follow one formula.
Arunachal Pradesh had no Ramsar Site until Glaw Lake was designated. That did not mean its wetlands lacked ecological value.
The state’s difficult terrain and limited accessibility have helped leave parts of its landscapes relatively less disturbed. The region also has deep cultural relationships between indigenous communities and rivers, forests, lakes and mountains.
But access can change.
As infrastructure expands and previously inaccessible landscapes become easier to reach, the factors that once limited human pressure can change too.
The December 2024 survey of Glaw Lake therefore examined tourism activity alongside ecological health, hydrology, biodiversity and local dependencies.
That becomes especially relevant after international recognition.
The Ramsar designation also requires a country to define the site’s boundaries and document its ecological character through a Ramsar Information Sheet. Photograph: (ICIMOD)
If more visitors begin travelling to Glaw Lake because of its Ramsar status, conservation planning will have to account for that growth.
An urban wetland faces a very different set of pressures.
In West Bengal, a wetland may sit beside roads, housing colonies, sewage channels, fish ponds and industrial areas.
Protecting it may mean dealing with drainage, pollution, encroachment, invasive species, waste and livelihoods at the same time.
A single clean-up or weed-removal drive cannot address all of those pressures.
The way a wetland is managed has to make sense for the actual landscape people and wildlife are sharing.
Before India looks for Ramsar Site number 102
With India’s Ramsar count now at 101, it may be tempting to ask which wetland will become number 102.
A more useful question comes first: how much do we know about the wetlands already around us?
A scientifically robust inventory can identify wetlands that may meet one or more Ramsar criteria. Detailed ecological surveys, hydrological studies, biodiversity assessments and mapping can then establish whether a site qualifies.
Underneath all that scientific work are questions that are fairly simple to understand.
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What species depend on the wetland?
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What role does it play in flood regulation or water storage?
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Does it support significant populations of waterbirds?
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Is it a rare or representative wetland type?
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Do local communities depend on it for fishing, farming or other livelihoods?
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And what happens when the landscape around it begins to change?
Those answers matter whether a wetland eventually receives a Ramsar tag or remains outside the list.
Some may go on to become Ramsar Sites. Others may never need the designation to justify protection.
So the next time another lake, marsh or mangrove enters the news as India’s newest Ramsar Site, the number will tell one part of its story.
The questions worth asking next are what lives there, who depends on it, what is changing around it, and what needs to happen so the wetland can keep doing the work that made it important in the first place.
