When the Process is the Message – The Story of Deepor Beel

Deepor Beel – meaning ‘lake of the elephants’ in Assamese language – is an ecologically sensitive wetland, in fact the only Ramsar site in Assam, situated at the outskirts of Guwahati in the valley of the Brahmaputra River. Deepor Beel is a melting pot of conflicting interests causing severe threats such as land reclamation and expansion of the Guwahati city, dumping of municipal waste on the edge of the wetland fragmentation of hydrological regime, invasive and alien species, siltation, pollution, unregulated recreation and tourism and overharvesting of resources.

As per request of the Hon’ble Union Environment Minister, the NERAQ Project is supporting the State Wetlands Authority in its mandate under the National Plan for the Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA) to develop the Integrated Wetland Management Plan (IWMP) for Deepor Beel. The project undertook detailed assessments which reveal the wetlands’ changing status over time, climate risks and vulnerabilities as well as the expectations of the dependent communities. With the support of Wetlands International South Asia, various departments came together and were guided through the process of achieving a commonly agreed management regime for the wetland following the “wise-use” principle. This integrated approach further enables tapping into convergence opportunities across government schemes. Being the first IWMP in Assam ever developed, the project will, as a second step capacitate Master Trainers who will then train more than 375 responsible staff in the process of developing IWMPs.

Further, this is also a successful cooperation with two other IKI Projects- “Wetlands Management for Biodiversity and Climate Protection” that is providing the expertise in the methodology and development of IWMP and the “Living Lakes Biodiversity and Climate Project” that will be implementing the IWMP in Deepor Beel.