Glaw Lake becomes India’s 101st Ramsar wetland site

India designated Glaw Lake in Arunachal Pradesh as the country's 101st Ramsar site on 3 August, the state's first such designation, Livemint reported. The freshwater lake sits inside the Kamlang Tiger Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in the eastern Himalayas and is considered a biodiversity hotspot. Ramsar status marks a wetland as internationally important under the Ramsar Convention, which India joined in 1982, the report noted that India's network has grown from 26 sites in 2014 to 101 today, with Tamil Nadu holding the most at 20 and Uttar Pradesh next with 13. Recognition does not automatically confer legal protection, the report said, but it can improve monitoring, management, technical cooperation and eco-tourism. Paras Tyagi, co-founder of the Centre for Youth Culture Law and Environment, told Livemint that protected areas such as wildlife sanctuaries add a layer of protection to Ramsar sites within them, but that a dedicated local area planning framework, similar to an urban master plan, is still needed to conserve existing sites and identify future ones.