Mokarsagar

Wetland types:

Within the Mokarsagar Wetland Complex, three wetland types are recognised
 (1) Coastal brackish/saline lagoons as a part of Marine or Coastal wetland,
 (2) Seasonal/intermittent freshwater marshes, shrub-dominated freshwater marshes as Inland wetlands
 (3) Water storage areas; reservoirs/barrages/dams/impoundments as a Human made wetland.

Mokarsagar- Why not Ramsar site?

Criteria for Ramsar listing:
To be listed as Wetlands of International Importance or ‘Ramsar sites’, wetlands must meet one or more internationally accepted criteria in relation to their zoology, botany, ecology, hydrology or limnology and importance to waterbirds.

Criteria 1:

A representative, rare, or unique example of a natural or near-natural wetland type found within the appropriate biogeographic region

Criteria 2:

Supports vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered species or threatened ecological communities

Criteria 3:

Supports populations of plants and / or animal species important for maintaining the biological diversity of a particular biogeographic region

Criteria 4:

Supports plant and / or animal species at a critical stage in their life cycle, or provides refuge during adverse conditions

Criteria 5:

Regularly supports 20,000 or more waterbirds

Criteria 6:

Regularly supports 1 % of the individuals in a population of one species or subspecies of waterbird

Criteria 7:

Supports a significant proportion of indigenous fish subspecies, species or families, life-history stages, species interactions and / or populations that are representative of wetland benefits and / or values and thereby contributes to global biological diversity

Criteria 8:

Important source of food for fishes, spawning ground, nursery and/ or migratory path on which fish stocks, either within the wetland or elsewhere depends

Criteria 9:

Regularly supports 1% of the individuals in a population of one species or subspecies of wetland- dependent non-avian animal species

Out of nine above mentioned criteria, Mokarsagar site signifies minimum six of them i.e. criteria one to six. With proper field work and research, it can signify remaining too.

Justification of criteria for Ramsar listing

Criteria 1:

Mokarsagar is an example of unique amalgam of natural and man-made wetlands. Mokarsagar is popularly known as “Eden Garden of birds”. Total 261 bird species (incl. 124 species of waterbirds) have been recorded in Porbandar district. Mokarsagar supports many migratory waterbirds in their critical stage of life i.e. escaping winter.

Criteria 2:

Total 261 bird species are recorded in Porbandar. Out of which 18 fall under the categories of either Vulnerable or Near Threaten (Table 1)

No	Common Name	Scientific Name	Category
1	Asian Woollyneck	Ciconia episcopus	Vulnerable
2	Macqueen’s Bustard	Chlamydotis macqueenii	Vulnerable
3	Dalmatian Pelican	Pelecanus crispus	Vulnerable
4	Indian Spotted Eagle	Clanga hastate	Vulnerable
5	Greater Spotted Eagle	Clanga clanga	Vulnerable
6	Sarus Crane	Grus Antigone	Vulnerable
7	Oriental Darter	Anhinga melanogaster	Near Threatened
8	Ferruginous Duck	Aythya nyroca	Near Threatened
9	Painted Stork	Mycteria leucocephala	Near Threatened
10	Black-necked Stork	Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus	Near Threatened
11	Black-headed Ibis	Threskiornis melanocephalus	Near Threatened
12	Lesser Flamingo	Phoeniconaias minor	Near Threatened
13	Black-tailed Godwit	Limosa limosa	Near Threatened
14	Eurasian Curlew	Numenius arquata	Near Threatened
15	Pallid Harrier	Circus macrourus	Near Threatened
16	Red-necked Falcon	Falco chicquera chicquera	Near Threatened
17	River Tern	Sterna aurantia	Near Threatened
18	European Roller	Coracias garrulus	Near Threatened

Criteria 3:

Asian Waterbird Census 2015 organized by Shree Sahajanand Swami District Community Science Centre covered 21 sites of the wetlands of Porbandar, has established a healthy popu-lation of 1,93,358 birds belonging to many different families in around Mokarsagar Wetland Complex.

Criteria 4:

Porbandar is one of the mega bio-diverse district of Gujarat as it has 261 species of Birds, 22 species of Mammals, 39 species of Reptiles, four species of Amphibians, 55 species of Butterflies, and 759 species of Plants. In the context this wetland complex is favorable home to mammals like Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) (Fig. 2.), Indian Fox (Vulpes bengalensis), Golden Jackal (Canis aureus), Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), Indian hare (Lepus nigricollis) and Common Mongoose (Herpestes edwardsi). Mokarsagar is true home to various flora and fauna including waterbirds, plants, mammals, fish, snakes, lizards, and am-phibians and butterflies.

Criteria 5 and 6:

As mentioned in criteria 3, instead of 20,000 birds or 1% of a popula-tion of one species, Mokarsagar definitely supports more waterbirds than required number.

Notes

Mokarsagar Wetland Conservation Committee (MWCC) in collaboration with expert groups, will work on fresh water fish diversity and other floral– faunal elements of Mokarsagar to further justify remaining criteria.

Reference:

• Meena,R.L. and Kumar,S.2014. Management Plan for Porbandar Bird Sanctuary, Gujarat Forest Department,Gujarat,India.
• Childress, B., Nagy, S.andHughes,B.Compilers, 2008.International SingleSpeciesActionPlan forth Conservation of the Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor). CMSTechnical SeriesNo.18, AEWA Technical SeriesNo.34. Bonn,Germany.
• http://jaidevjai.blogspot.in/2008/01/birding-sots-around-porbandar.html
• Wetlands Management Planning Methodology Manual for Indian Managers January 2013, Version 1.0.
• Vargiya D. V. et al. 2015. Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) 2015 Porbandar, Shree Sahajanand Swami District Community Science Centre, Gujarat, India

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