Status and Conservation of Lowland Terai Wetlands in Nepal

Known as "Simsar" in Nepal, wetlands are those areas which lie between the land and deepwater and remian waterlogged or submerged under water, seasonally or throughout the year. Generally the land is so muddy that one cannot easily walk over it, and water is so deep that one can neither swim nor get drowned. River floodplains, shallow margins of lakes and reservoirs, shallow and seasonal ponds, islands in rivers, deepwater paddy fields, and seacoasts are typical examples of wetlands. Wetlands are essential for the free ecosystem services that they provide to the human community. The most obvious are maintenance or improvement of water quality, groundwater discharge and recharge, erosion control, flood protection and flow stabilization, storm dampening, healthy ecosystem functions, soil building, foodchain production, nutrient cycling and biogecochemical processes, habitat for wildlife, sites for research and environmental education, cultural heritage, open space preservation, aesthetics, tourism and recreation. They are also important because attention has been turned recently to using wetland systems and the plant species occurring therein as bio-energy sources and also for use in pollution abatement projects to filter sewage, agricultural runoff, leachate from landfills, and acid mine drainage mitigation (Brooks, 1989; Oliver and Hill 1998). It is the constellation of these and other functions and values that the wetlands are recognized as the 'Kidneys of the landscape' or called as 'biological supermarkets'. Unfortunately, the wetlands are being degraded today mainly due to pollution from sewage and industrial effluents, and from overexploitation of resources. The wetlands are rapidly disappearing because of the general notion that they are waterlogged and unproductive lands which harbour disease-carrying insects, pests and poisonous snakes. They are drained and/or filled for agriculture, human settlements and industries besides being rapidly silted due to large scale deforestation in surrounding areas, and they are also being dried up in many places as rivers are dammed and channelized for the generation of hydroelectricity and other purposes.