IWN Daily Digest — Sunday, 18 October 2026
A man-made reservoir built 68 years ago for the residents of a planned city has been recognised as a wetland of international importance, even though silt has taken more than half of its water-holding capacity.
As The Tribune reported:
“The wetland is particularly important for the vulnerable common pochard and the endangered Pallas’s fish eagle. Its shallow littoral habitats also support the endangered black pond turtle.”
Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh is now a Ramsar site, the city’s first, and it joins the list alongside Uttar Pradesh’s Sauj Jheel to take India’s total to 103. The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced the designation on Thursday evening.
Punjab’s Governor, who also serves as the administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, said the recognition brings greater responsibility, with conserving the wetland, its catchment and its biodiversity as the priority.
Le Corbusier, who designed Chandigarh, created the 493-acre lake in 1958, and it is fed by the Sukhna Choe, a seasonal rivulet. It supports birds on the Central Asian Flyway, among them the common pochard and Pallas’s fish eagle, and it is home to the black pond turtle.
Silt and erosion have cost the lake more than half of its water-holding capacity over recent decades. It was declared a wetland in 2020 under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, and the Chandigarh engineering department carried out de-silting work in June 2026 to increase its storage capacity.
Sauj Jheel
Sauj Jheel is a shallow natural lake near the Ganga in Mainpuri district, and it has been an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area since 2004. It hosts the Sarus crane, and sewage, pollution and agricultural runoff that feeds eutrophication are among the threats it faces.
Mainpuri is the only district in India with two Ramsar sites, the other being the Saman Bird Sanctuary.
Sources: ThePrint · The Tribune
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