Aravalli Biodiversity Park Declared India’s First OECM Site

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The Aravalli Biodiversity Park was declared India’s first “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECM) site on the occasion of World Wetlands Day. The announcement was made by officials of the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change.

The OECM tag is given by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to areas that are not protected but support rich biodiversity.
Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram has been notified as the first OECM site in the country.
The proposal to declare Aravalli Biodiversity Park an OECM site was sent by the National Biodiversity Authority to the IUCN in December 2020.
The proposal to make Aravallis as the OECM was made by the National Biodiversity Authority
The OECM tag does not bring any legal, financial or management implications, but designates the area as a biodiversity hotspot on the international map.

About the Aravalli Biodiversity Park

The park is spread over 390 acres. It has a semi – arid vegetation. It has more than 43,000 shrubs, 101,000 trees and 300 endemic plant species. Earlier, the park was a mining site.
It was transformed into a city forest through immense efforts of environmentalists, scientists, ecologists along with the local population.
The Aravallis, one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world, are considered the green lungs of Delhi-NCR, a crucial water recharge zone for the region.
They also support rich fauna, including leopards, sambhar, fox, jackals and palm civets among others.
In 2018, a study by the Centre for Environmental Research and Education covering biodiversity aspects, oxygen generation, value of trees and a host of other criteria, showed that the Aravalli Biodiversity Park potentially supplies around 7.07% of the oxygen requirement for the Delhi-NCR.

Need for the tag

25% of the Aravallis was lost due to illegal mining. According to CAG, there were more than 4,0000 illegal mining cases. Since 1960s, 31 hills vanished from the hills.
The Aravallis act as a barrier between the desert in the west and the fertile land in the east. The Aravallis stops the monsoon clouds and brings rains to Nainital and Shimla. The hill function as the groundwater recharge for the region.

OECM

The OECM areas were defined at the Convention on Biological Diversity that was held in 2018.
“OECM is not a protected area. It is governed to achieve positive outcomes. The outcomes are conservation of biodiversity, giving importance to cultural, socio – economic and spiritual values.”

Identification of OECMs offers a significant opportunity to increase recognition and support for de facto effective long-term conservation that is taking place outside currently designated protected areas under a range of governance and management regimes, implemented by a diverse set of actors, including by Indigenous peoples and local communities, the private sector and government agencies.

About the Aravalli Hills

The Aravali is a mountain range in Northwestern India, running approximately 670 km in a southwest direction, starting near Delhi, passing through southern Haryana and Rajasthan, and ending in Gujarat.
The highest peak is Guru Shikhar at 1,722 meters.
The Aravalli Range, an eroded stub of ancient mountains, is the oldest range of fold mountains in India.

The natural history of the Aravalli Range dates back to times when the Indian Plate was separated from the Eurasian Plate by an ocean.
Three major rivers and their tributaries flow from the Aravalli, namely Banas and Sahibi rivers which are tributaries of Yamuna, as well as Luni River which flows into the Rann of Kutch.

Question:
Which of the following National Parks is unique in being a swamp with floating vegetation that supports a rich biodiversity?
(a) Bhitarkanika National Park
(b) Keibul Lamjao National Park
(c) Keoladeo Ghana National Park
(d) Sultanpur National Park