The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu Government to geo-reference and superimpose on satellite imagery the 24,684 wetlands mapped in the State under the National Wetland Inventory and Assessment (NWIA) in 2010 so that their exact location could be identified and present status determined before being notified under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017.
Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N. Mala issued the direction after amicus curiae P.S. Raman submitted a compact disc containing the georeferenced maps of the wetlands in Tiruvallur district, taken up on a pilot basis. The court had on July 1 directed the Ministry of Environment and Forests to share with the senior counsel a web link containing the shape and vector files of the wetlands so that he could take a Google impression and superimpose.
