Why Chennai is flagged as point of global concern in this environmental report

In the 2024 edition of its biennial Living Planet Report, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has flagged critical areas of concern pertaining to loss of wetlands, drought and flooding. For instance, wetlands in Chennai on the Bay of Bengal have shrunk by 85 per cent due to rapid urbanisation—a fact that finds mention in the chapter ‘Tipping Points’. This adversely affected key services provided by wetland ecosystems—replenishment of groundwater and control of water flow or drainage—leading to drought and floods related to climate change.
When Chennai and surrounding areas were hit by a severe drought, the reservoirs dried up and groundwater levels dropped. The city dwellers faced an acute shortage of water for basic needs such as drinking, cooking and bathing. Presenting the spread of urbanization in Chennai between 1988 and 2019 diagrammatically, the report mentions June 19, 2019—dubbed as Day Zero—when 11.2 million people went without water in Chennai.
Shrinking wetlands also left the city more vulnerable to floods. The heavy rainfall in Chennai in 2015 was not unprecedented, but the natural channels of drainage had been lost due to the shrinking of wetlands, leading to the flooding of large parts of the city.
The report also takes note of the government’s efforts to restore the wetlands since recognising the impacts of their shrinking.
Chennai is not the only place facing wetland loss. The problem is seen across the country with state governments legislating on the subject but seldom acting on it. For example, including three recently notified ones, in India there are 85 Ramsar sites—sites designated as internationally important under the 1971 Convention on Wetlands signed in Ramsar, Iran, under Unesco auspices—covering a total area of 1.358 million hectares. Five are in Madhya Pradesh, where the state government is yet to effectively implement the Wetland Rules, 2017, under which a state wetland authority was formed. The body has met just three times in the past seven years. All reservoirs larger than 2.25 hectares were to be notified under the 2017 rules, but this has not been done yet. It would have greatly helped in conservation of these reservoirs as the boundaries would have been identified.
The report mentions the loss of wetlands in Chennai along with two other tipping points of global concern: one, fires, drought and invasive species in North America, and two, the overfishing, pollution and warming waters in the Great Barrier Reef.
The WWF has also patted India on the back for initiatives in sustainable food production, especially the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming initiative through which farmers are building capacity to address issues like biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution and access to nutritious food. Around 630,000 farmers are connected to this project, which has led to doubling of crop diversification, increase in yield by around 11 per cent, increase in net income by 49 per cent and enhancement of dietary diversity. The report also mentions the National Millets Campaign as an initiative towards a local solution to the issue of healthier food for all.
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