In news- Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of the Deepor Beel Wildlife Sanctuary. The notification specified an area “to an extent varying from 294 metres to 16.32 km” as ESZ.
About the sanctuary-
- It is a permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River.
- The name Deepor Beel is derived from the Sanskrit word dipa which means elephant, -r means “of” and bil means wetland or large aquatic body in Assamese language, inhabited by elephants.
- It is claimed that Beel was an important dockyard of the Tai-Ahom as well as the Mughals.
- Aquatic vegetation include Giant Water Lily, water hyacinth, aquatic grasses, water lilies and other submerged, emergent and floating vegetation.
- The beel is a natural habitat to many varieties of birds and largest congregations of aquatic birds can be seen, particularly in winter, like Spot-billed pelican, lesser adjutant stork, Baer’s pochard, greater adjutant stork, Siberian crane.
- It is Assam’s only Ramsar site.
- Considering the richness of the bird varieties found in the beel, the BirdLife International has declared Deepor Beel as an Important Bird Area (IBA) with high priority for conservation.
Extra information- https://journalsofindia.com/eco-sensitive-zones-esz/
Source: The Hindu
