Ladakh’s Tso Kar Becomes India’s 42nd Ramsar Site – Free PDF Download

 
Q) The Snow leopard is the state animal of

1. UT of Ladakh
2. UT of Jammu Kashmir
3. Himachal Pradesh
4. Arunachal Pradesh

Location:

• The Tso Kar lies 160 km south of Leh, and 540km east of Srinagar.
• The Leh Manali road passes 30 km west of it.
• Accessed from two different routes:
• Leh-Manali route or
• Pangong Lake route.

• India has added the Tso Kar Wetland Complex in Ladakh as its 42nd Ramsar site.
• It is the second Ramsar site in the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh.
• Located in the Changthang region of Ladakh.

The Ramsar convention

• The Ramsar Convention is one of the oldest inter-governmental accords signed to preserve the ecological character of wetlands of international importance in the signatory countries.

The Ramsar sites

• The Ramsar List is the world’s largest network of protected areas.
• There are over 2,400 Ramsar Sites on the territories of 171 Convention Contracting Parties across the world, covering more than 2.5 million square kilometres.
• The total protected wetland area in India now covers a surface area of 10,701 square km.

Tso Kar:

• Until a few years ago the lake was an important source of salt, which the Changpa nomads used to export to Tibet.

1. The nomadic settlement of Thugje is located 3 km in the north.
2. There is a tented camp on the west bank of the lake which provides accommodation for tourists.

• The Tso Kar complex is formed by the connection of two lakes:-
• the freshwater Startsapuk Tso – about 438 hectares to the south, and
• the hypersaline Tso Kar – 1800 hectares to the north.
• The name ‘Tso Kar’ means – white lake, because of the white salt efflorescence found on the margins due to the evaporation of highly saline water.
• Temperature ranges from 30°C in summer to -40°C in winter.

Flora & Fauna

• The basin of the Tso Kar and the adjoining More Plains constitute one of the most important habitats of the kiang, Tibetan gazelles, Tibetan wolves and foxes.
• There are himalayan marmotsin the higher reaches.
• Yaks and horses are kept by the nomads.
• Due to the salinity of the Tso Kar, most of the resident fauna is found in its tributaries and in Startsapuk Tso.

• The Tso Kar Basin is an A1 Category Important Bird Area (IBA) as per Bird Life International and a key staging site in the Central Asian Flyway.
• The site is also one of the most important breeding areas of the Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) in India.
• This IBA is also the major breeding area for Great Crested Grebe (Podicepscristatus), Bar-headed Geese (Anserindicus), Ruddy Shelduck (Tadornaferruginea), Brown-headed Gull (Larusbrunnicephalus), Lesser Sand-Plover (Charadriusmongolus) and many other species.

Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA)

• It is an area identified as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.

1. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International.
2. Currently there are over 12,000 IBAs worldwide.
3. A1 IBA = Globally threatened species
4. Estimated to hold a population of a species categorized by the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable.

Benefits of ‘Ramsar site’ tag

• The aim of the Ramsar list is – “to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits”.
• Wetlands provide important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.
• They are a major source of water, and our main supply of freshwater comes from wetlands
• Wetlands help soak rainfall and recharge groundwater.
• The MoEF&CC would be working closely with the UT Wetland Authority to ensure wise use of this site.

• Sur Sarovar (also known as Keetham lake), in Agra, UP,
• Kabartal in Bihar’s Begusarai district,
• Asan Conservation Reserve in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Q) The Snow leopard is the state animal of

1. UT of Ladakh
2. UT of Jammu Kashmir
3. Himachal Pradesh
4. Arunachal Pradesh

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