India now has 103 Ramsar Sites — wetlands recognised as being of international importance. The count crossed 103 on 15 October 2026, when Sukhna Wetland in Chandigarh and Sauj Jheel in Uttar Pradesh were added. The Press Information Bureau set out the full picture in a backgrounder on 25 October 2026.
Most study notes still carry 85, or 89, or 96. That is the first reason this matters. The second is more interesting, and it is what this capsule is really about: a Ramsar listing is not an award a country wins. It is an undertaking a country gives. Once you see that, a whole set of exam questions stops being about memorising names.
The Hinge: a Listing Is a Promise to Maintain, Not a Prize to Win
Think about what the Convention actually asks of a member country. A country picks a wetland, shows that it meets at least one of nine agreed criteria, and puts it on the List. Nothing is handed over — no money, no protected status under Indian law, no ranger force. What the country gives in return is a commitment: to maintain that wetland’s ecological character, and to report back.
The proof that this is a promise and not a prize is a mechanism almost nobody studies: the Montreux Record. If a listed wetland starts to deteriorate, it can be put on this register — a watch-list of sites in trouble. A country cannot be fined for it. But the entry stands there, in public, until the problem is fixed. A list you can be demoted on is a list that measures effort, not status.
Jargon, defined once. Ecological character means the combination of the wetland’s parts and processes — its water, soil, plants, animals and the services it provides — at the time it was listed. Wise use is the Convention’s own term for using a wetland without degrading that character; it is the idea that a wetland is to be used sensibly, not fenced off.
What Changed, and When
India’s wetland count has moved fast, and the exam-relevant points are the milestones rather than the running total:
| Milestone | Site | When |
|---|---|---|
| India’s first two Ramsar Sites | Chilika Lake (Odisha) and Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan) | 1 October 1981 |
| India becomes a Contracting Party | — | 1 February 1982 |
| 100th Ramsar Site | Surha Tal, Uttar Pradesh | June 2026 |
| 101st Ramsar Site | Glaw Lake, Arunachal Pradesh | August 2026 |
| 102nd and 103rd Sites | Sukhna Wetland (Chandigarh), Sauj Jheel (Uttar Pradesh) | 15 October 2026 |
Note the order of the first two entries. Chilika and Keoladeo were designated on 1 October 1981, four months before India formally became a Party on 1 February 1982. This looks like an error and is not one: designation took effect when India’s membership did. It is the kind of pair of dates an examiner likes, because a candidate who has memorised only one of them will pick the wrong option.
In 2014 India had 26 Ramsar Sites. The jump from 26 to 103 in twelve years is nearly fourfold, and PIB presents that as the headline achievement.
The Two Newest Sites
- Sukhna Wetland, Chandigarh — a reservoir-fed wetland in the city, and Chandigarh’s entry onto the List.
- Sauj Jheel, Uttar Pradesh — a jheel is a shallow lake or oxbow wetland of the Ganga plain. PIB records that Sauj Jheel regularly hosts more than 30,000 waterbirds.
That 30,000 figure is not decoration. It is the qualifying argument. One of the nine criteria — Criterion 5 — is met by a wetland that regularly supports 20,000 or more waterbirds. Sauj Jheel clears it comfortably. If you can connect a site to the criterion it satisfied, you understand the system rather than the list.
The Nine Criteria, in Two Groups
A wetland needs to meet only one of nine criteria, and the nine fall into two groups. This is the single most useful thing to hold in memory:
| Group | What it tests | Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Group A | The wetland type itself is representative, rare or unique for its biogeographic region | Criterion 1 |
| Group B | The wetland matters for conserving biodiversity — species and communities, waterbirds, fish, other animals | Criteria 2 to 9 |
- Criteria 2, 3, 4 — species and ecological communities: threatened species; species important for the region’s biological diversity; species at a critical stage of their life cycle or in refuge during bad conditions.
- Criterion 5 — regularly supports 20,000 or more waterbirds.
- Criterion 6 — regularly supports 1% of the individuals in a population of one species or subspecies of waterbird.
- Criteria 7 and 8 — fish: a significant share of indigenous fish species, or an important food source, spawning ground, nursery or migration path for fish.
- Criterion 9 — regularly supports 1% of the individuals in a population of a wetland-dependent non-bird animal species.
The trap here is Criterion 5 against Criterion 6. Criterion 5 is a raw head count of all waterbirds together — twenty thousand of anything that counts as a waterbird. Criterion 6 is a share of a single species’ world population — one per cent — which a small wetland with a rare bird can meet with a few hundred individuals. One is about crowds; the other is about significance.
What Counts as a Wetland at All
The Convention’s own definition (Article 1.1) is broader than most people expect. Wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water — natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt — and they include marine areas whose depth at low tide does not exceed six metres.
Three things follow, and each has been an option in somebody’s question paper. A man-made reservoir can be a Ramsar Site. A wetland that dries up seasonally still counts. And shallow sea is included, up to the six-metre low-tide line, which is why coastal and mangrove sites qualify.
The Montreux Record: the Watch-List, and the One India Got a Site Off
The Montreux Record was created in 1990, at the Convention’s fourth Conference of the Parties held in Montreux, Switzerland. A site goes on it when its ecological character has changed, is changing, or is likely to change because of pollution, construction or other human interference. Going on is voluntary in form and uncomfortable in practice.
India’s instructive case is Chilika Lake. The Chilika Development Authority’s own record states that Chilika was placed on the Montreux Record in 1993 because its ecological character had changed, and was removed in November 2002 after restoration work and a wise-use programme. In the same year, 2002, the Authority received the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award.
Hold that sequence: listed 1981, in trouble by 1993, restored and delisted from the watch-list in 2002, awarded in 2002. It is the clearest available illustration that a Ramsar listing is a maintenance obligation. India’s other famous wetlands have not all had the same arc, and a question that asks which Indian site was removed from the Montreux Record has one answer.
India’s Numbers, as PIB Gives Them
| Fact | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total Ramsar Sites | 103 |
| Total area | More than 13.87 lakh hectares |
| States and UTs covered | 28 |
| State with the most sites | Tamil Nadu (20) |
| Second-highest | Uttar Pradesh (14) |
| Largest single site | Sundarban Wetland, West Bengal — about 4,23,000 hectares, designated 30 January 2019 |
| Rank | First in Asia, third in the world |
| Contracting Parties worldwide | 172 |
| Ramsar Sites worldwide | More than 2,536 |
On the ranking: the two countries ahead of India are the United Kingdom and Mexico, each of which has listed more sites. India being first in Asia is the safer half of that fact to carry, because it is the half least likely to change in the next year.
The Sundarban entry is worth a second look. It is India’s largest Ramsar Site and, as PIB notes, holds over 60% of India’s mangrove area. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a tiger reserve, which is the ordinary condition of a big Indian wetland: several designations stacked on the same ground, each from a different authority. We set the World Heritage system out separately in our Static GK capsule on India’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the protected-area system in the capsule on National Parks and Protected Areas.
What Protects a Wetland Inside India
A Ramsar listing is international. The enforceable rules are domestic, and they are the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, which prohibit encroachment, dumping of waste and the discharge of untreated effluent. PIB also records the supporting programmes:
- Amrit Dharohar — flora and fauna inventories completed for 75 Ramsar Sites; carbon stock assessed for 39.
- Mission Sahbhagita and its Save Wetlands Campaign, begun in Goa on 4 February 2023 — over 2 million citizen volunteers, more than 1.7 lakh wetlands mapped.
- MISHTI — mangrove restoration targeted over 540 sq km across nine States and four UTs; ₹88.44 crore released so far to restore 9,949.5 hectares.
- Wetlands of India Portal, inaugurated on 2 October 2021.
- Wetland Cities — Indore and Udaipur became India’s first Ramsar-accredited Wetland Cities in January 2025.
One more process fact, small and very askable: a site’s Ramsar Information Sheet has to be updated every six years. That is the reporting half of the promise.
What the Release Does Not Say
Two honest gaps. First, PIB’s backgrounder gives the areas and the bird counts for the new sites but does not state which numbered criteria Sukhna Wetland and Sauj Jheel were designated under; the 30,000-waterbird figure for Sauj Jheel points to Criterion 5, but the formal citation will appear in the Ramsar Information Sheets. Second, the world totals move every few weeks as other countries designate sites, so quote 172 Parties and 2,536 sites with the date, never as a bare figure.
Why a Reader Should Care
Wetlands are a standing favourite in the General Awareness section, and the questions come in three recognisable shapes: the current total, a site matched to its State, and a mechanism such as the Montreux Record or the 2017 Rules. The first shape changes every few months and is the cheapest mark to lose. The third shape never changes and is the one most candidates skip.
There is also a conceptual link worth carrying into the environment section generally. The same logic that makes a Ramsar listing an obligation rather than a trophy runs through India’s species programmes too — as in the release of captive-bred Great Indian Bustards into the wild, where the designation was never the achievement and the maintenance was. And because so many Ramsar sites are lakes and river stretches, our capsule on Rivers, Dams and Lakes of India is the natural companion.
Today’s Static GK capsule goes in a very different direction — back about four and a half thousand years, to the Indus Valley Civilisation and the site-and-find table that answers most exam questions. The two have one quiet thing in common: both are chapters where candidates memorise lists and examiners ask about systems.
Practice Questions
Q1. As on 15 October 2026, how many Ramsar Sites does India have?
(a) 89 (b) 96 (c) 100 (d) 103
Answer: (d) 103 PIB’s backgrounder of 25 October 2026 puts the total at 103, up from 26 in 2014.
Q2. Which two wetlands were added to make India’s total 103?
(a) Surha Tal and Glaw Lake (b) Sukhna Wetland and Sauj Jheel (c) Khichan Wetland and Beas Conservation Reserve (d) Chilika Lake and Keoladeo National Park
Answer: (b) Sukhna Wetland and Sauj Jheel Surha Tal was the 100th in June 2026 and Glaw Lake the 101st in August 2026, which is why option (a) is the tempting wrong answer.
Q3. Which Indian Ramsar Site was removed from the Montreux Record in November 2002?
(a) Loktak Lake (b) Keoladeo National Park (c) Chilika Lake (d) Sambhar Lake
Answer: (c) Chilika Lake It had been placed on the Record in 1993; the Chilika Development Authority also received the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award in 2002.
Q4. Which State has the largest number of Ramsar Sites in India?
(a) Tamil Nadu (b) Uttar Pradesh (c) West Bengal (d) Kerala
Answer: (a) Tamil Nadu The count there is 20, with Uttar Pradesh second on 14. West Bengal holds the largest single site, the Sundarban Wetland, which is a different question.
Q5. Under the Ramsar Convention, a wetland meets Criterion 5 if it regularly supports:
(a) 1% of a waterbird population (b) 5,000 or more waterbirds (c) 20,000 or more waterbirds (d) Any threatened waterbird species
Answer: (c) 20,000 or more waterbirds Option (a) is Criterion 6, which is about a share of one species’ population rather than a head count. Mixing the two is the commonest error in this topic.
30-Second Revision
- 103 Ramsar Sites as on 15 October 2026 — the newest two are Sukhna Wetland (Chandigarh) and Sauj Jheel (Uttar Pradesh); over 13.87 lakh hectares across 28 States and UTs; first in Asia, third in the world.
- Nine criteria, two groups — Group A (Criterion 1) is about the wetland type; Group B (Criteria 2 to 9) is about biodiversity. Criterion 5 = 20,000 waterbirds; Criterion 6 = 1% of one species’ population.
- The Montreux Record is the watch-list, created in 1990 at Montreux, Switzerland. Chilika went on in 1993 and came off in November 2002 — the proof that a listing is an obligation, not an award.
Sources
- Press Information Bureau, Ramsar Sites in India: Safeguarding Wetlands of International Importance, 25 October 2026 — the figures for 103 sites, area, State-wise counts, Sundarban, Amrit Dharohar, Mission Sahbhagita, MISHTI and the Wetland Cities.
- Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Criteria for Identifying Wetlands of International Importance (Resolution annex) — the nine criteria and the Article 1.1 definition of wetlands.
- Chilika Development Authority, Eco-Restoration — Chilika’s placement on the Montreux Record in 1993, its removal in November 2002 and the 2002 Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award.
