Delhi people will breathe easy this winter as chances of revival of dying wetlands have increased after moderate rainfall. Incidentally, Delhi’s ecology has taken a vital turn as the findings of team Professor Emeritus, Delhi University C R Babu has measured 50 per cent of wetlands can be revived provided these are not encroached upon and surface of the land is not “concretised”.
Importantly, according to Dr Rajendera K Jenamani, the weather scientist, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) total rainfall recorded in September till date (1 to 9) is 11.2 cm against whole September month normal of 11.8 cm. (at Palam observatory) .It means, in the first eight days, Delhi got rain which is almost its normal quota for whole September month.
However, normal rainfall during month of August was 247.7 mm at Safdrajung observatory, while the first 19 days of August saw 206.5mm being recorded by the IMD, slightly less in August month.
With Yamuna Biodiversity Park (YBP) as the benchmark, scientists have given hope to Delhities that besides escalating forest cover, the revival of wetlands will be another boon to increase oxygen level in the national capital’s air.
Notably, Delhi had recorded 1154 water bodies in 90s. This number according to official records has come down to 672 and water bodies are bearing extinction if steps to revive the same are not initiated.
Professor Babu , Professor Faiyaz Khudsar, fellow researchers , education officers have prepared a formula to revive wetlands and Yamuna river both. The technique will work vice versa approach, this means, if water level in Yamuna decreases, wetland will help Yamuna to maintain water balance.
Elaborating the scientific model for Yamuna and adjoining wetlands, Dr Faiyaz said, “We have made small wetlands parallel to Yamuna, and in this monsoon season , these wetlands are recharging”. Explaining further, he added that at present Yamuna is overflowing, but in the lean season, these wetlands which are over recharged now, will help in maintaining Yamuna’s water.
When asked how these wetland is helping in combating air pollution problem, Professor Babu said, “Wetlands function like kidneys, the matter of fact, here is that the aqua plants under these wetlands are carbon sinkers.”
Illustrating more about this, Preeti Vohra , Forest Education officer, YBP said that there are different , special species in wetland waters , instance — hydraulic plants , Leguminous — fix nitrogen from air and there are many others act like carbon absorbers . “These plants exist only in wetlands areas and act like carbon sinkers,” Vohra said.
“There were times when wetlands , small pond and water bodies existed in every stretch, the purpose of these small bodies is to rejuvenate not hydraulic species but other species too who rely on water bodies for their survival. This helps in maintaining ecological balance.
When asked about the situation in Delhi, Vohra said further that “Typha” is a good clue here. “Typha plant is a good clue for us and luckily, this plant exists in Delhi,” the forest education officer added.
Remarkably, Professor Babu and Dr Faiyaz also hint, “Typha is good indicator of water aquifer, this further means, Delhi can deter tough situations water scarcity and pollution both.
The team also marked that there is no shortage of water in Delhi, these Typha plant near wetlands indicate the condition of aquifer and we have found that conditions are good.
It is pertinent to mention here that others States — Kerala, Gujrat, Jharkhand are approaching Delhi University team to create wetlands.
“Revival is not tough, we need piece of land with a condition, and it should not be cemented,” Professor Babu said. “In Delhi, we are being approached by civic bodies, instance — Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Municipal Corporations and Public Works Department (PWD),” said Dr Faiyaz.
Citing the example of Neela Hauz at Aruna Asaf Ali road, these environment scientists said that water or Nullah , some particular plant species are indicators for us whether we can create wetland or what are the chances of its revival, he said.
“It is Constructed Wetland System, known as (CWS) and a two step process, step one involves storing the sewage water in a vacant piece of land for about 24 hours for the purposes of oxidation when aerobic bacteria break down the organic material in the raw sewage water,” Dr Faiyaz said.
“ The second step is storage of water in a pond where twenty different kind of aquatic plants like — Typha , Pharagmites, Alternanthera, Ipomoea, Solanum etc. cleanse the water of its bio-toxins and ease it into the lake,” he explained while showing the model in Delhi University Environmental Science Laboratory.
Dr Faiyaz said that CWS can easily be replicated in and around thousands of residential colonies in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Forest education officer, Vohra further said that the beauty of CWS is that it does not use electricity at all.
“Cleansing of raw sewage is done by the aquatic plants. The water flows to the lake through by natural gradient, interestingly, no pumping required in this mechanism,” She added further.
Various nullahs which discharge sewage water into the Yamuna River can be converted into lakes. This will not only reduce the burden of sewage on the River Yamuna but also create numerous water bodies,” this is the principle and we can revive water bodies. “There are good chances of arrival of different migratory birds in Delhi,” Vohra said.