India is a party to the Ramsar Convention and has declared many areas as Ramsar Sites. Which of the following statements best describes as to how we should maintain these sites in the context of this Convention?

Answer: (d) Conserve all the sites through ecosystem approach and allow their simultaneous sustainable use

The Ramsar principle is “wise use”: conserve wetlands through an ecosystem approach while using them sustainably at the same time.

The idea

Ramsar’s central idea is wise use: keep the ecological character of the wetland, and let people go on using it in a sustainable way at the same time. Fishing, grazing, reed cutting and tourism can all continue if the wetland stays healthy. It is not a keep-out treaty.

Wetland is listed → Its ecological character must be maintained → People continue fishing, farming and other uses → Use must stay within what the wetland can bear

Why the others are wrong

(c) There is no “freeze first, use later” model.

The trap

(c) sounds careful and scientific, but Ramsar allows use now, not later.

Elimination technique

Option (a) says “completely inaccessible” and option (b) says “only”. Absolute words usually mark the wrong option in Environment PYQs.

Also know

The convention was signed at Ramsar in Iran on 2 February 1971, now World Wetlands Day. Its definition of a wetland is very wide and includes man-made ones and shallow sea up to six metres deep at low tide. India’s first two sites were Chilika and Keoladeo.