Wetlands in Manipur come under
the inland wetlands category. In the
vernacular, wetlands including swampy
areas and water bodies are called as ‘Pat’.Describing wetlands, Sabita Kaushal
(2016) writes, “Wetlands are of
immense value to us, in terms of the
social, environmental and cultural
services they provide. They help
in water storage, flood mitigation,
shoreline stabilisation, groundwater
recharge, water purification and evenstabilisation of local climate, particularly
in terms of temperature and rainfall.
They are the world’s water filters that
trap pollutants in their soils, transform
dissolved nitrogen into nitrogen gas,
and break down suspended solids
to neutralize harmful bacteria. They
are the link between land and water,
home to some of the most productive
and unique ecosystems on earth. They
are important feeding, breeding, and
drinking areas for wildlife, wildfowl and
a complex and important food web”(India Waterportal). Wetlands store large quantities of
carbon in plant tissue and soils. But as
climate expert Williams Moomaw and
wetland scientists Gillian Davies and
Max Finlayson point out, no global
climate change agreement calls for
protecting wetlands as a way to slow
climate change. And around the globe,
wetlands are constantly being drained,
diked and paved over.Yaralpat, Photo by Nongamba Sorokhaibam56 neScholar^0 vol 4^0 issue 4