Basai wetland, located in Basai village in Gurgaon tehsil in Gurgaon district in Haryana, India, is a flora and fauna rich water body. It is recognised as one of India's Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas[1] and is of global conservation significance as it supports populations of several endangered, vulnerable, and threatened bird species.[2] Basai wetlandis recognised globally as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by the BirdLife International housing 20,000 birds of over 280 species including migratory birds and endangered birds, has not yet been declared a protected wetland by the Government of Haryana.[3]
Location and importance
Basai Wetland with water hyacinth, open water with ducks, and urban areas behind
Basai Wetland is located less than 40 kilometres (25 mi) away from the national capital, New Delhi, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Gurgaon city in Gurgaon district of Haryana State. It is 282 kilometres (175 mi) from the state capital Chandigarh.[4] It is located 8 km away from Sultanpur National Park in Haryana.[2]
The whole wetland is now getting encroached with human civilization causing a big threat to the wetland
The wetland is permanent shallow wetland covering an area of about 250 acres. It includes areas with open water, Water HyacinthEichhornia crassipes, Typha reedbeds, fields of Paspalum grass, and adjoining fallow fields, seasonally cultivated lands, and some thorn scrub vegetation with Salicornia and Acacia.[2] Crops such as rice, wheat, pearl-millet, sorghum, and mustard are cultivated seasonally in the agricultural land.[2][5] The wetland is inundated to an area of about 1 square kilometre during the monsoon by rain water and water channeled by farmers to irrigate crops. A major source of water is also a breached water channel carrying waste water and treated sewage from the Gurgaon Water and Sewage Works.[2]
Bird life
The birds at Basia are very insecure and forced to take their prey to other safer areas.
The wetland supports a high diversity of birds, with at least 239 species reported since 2001 in the area recognised as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area.[2] The wetland is also recognised as a birding hotspot in eBird with 282 bird species recorded as of May 2017.[6] According to a recent assessment,[2]
Basai village is famed for Basai wetland, home of endangered migrant birds, which is under threat from unsustainable development and urbanization.[9] The location of the wetland near the growing metropolis of Gurgaon has led to loss of agricultural lands and wetlands. Basai Wetland adjoins Sectors 9 and 10 of Gurgaon, major residential areas in the city, which were developed on land acquired from Basai village. Over two decades, around six-sevenths of the village's agricultural land has been lost due to urbanization and residential development.[5] Some agricultural area was also lost for establishing the water treatment plant of Haryana Urban Development Authority, which supplies drinking water to Gurgaon. Basai village has also faced the loss of five of the six village ponds (locally called johads) due to urbanization: three were lost to the residential sectors of Gurgaon, one for a public school, and another was polluted by wastewater from a local factory.[5]
Environmentalists have raised concerns over increasing construction activities, real estate development, and disturbance affecting the wetland and birds.[10] A proposed construction and demolition (C&D) plant by a multinational construction firm, approved by the Gurgaon Municipal Corporation, has raised fresh concerns over habitat loss, dust pollution, and disturbance to the wetland and its rich bird life.[11] A study of birds in the wetland carried out between 2015 and 2017 noted the following major threats to birds: habitat alteration, weed infestation, water scarcity, and discharge of untreated domestic sewage and industrial effluents.[12]
The loss of wetlands and pastures in Basai Wetland has also affected local people, specifically potters and those keeping livestock, whose traditional livelihoods have been eroded and they have had to move into other occupations.[5]
^ abcdefghijklRahmani, Asad R.; Islam, M. Zafar-ul; Kasambe, Raju M. (2016). Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas in India: Priority Sites for Conservation (Revised and updated). Bombay: Bombay Natural History Society, Indian Bird Conservation Network, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and BirdLife International (U.K.). Pp. 1992 + xii. pp. 665–668.
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