91 m ha (Central Water Commission, 2010). These reservoirs also support a wide variety of wildlife. Many of the reservoirs such as Govind Sagar Lake formed by diverting river Satluj (Bhakra Dam, Punjab) and Hirakud reservoir (Sambalpur, Orissa) are a major tourist attraction. As per official estimates, tourism contribution to India’s GDP and employment in 2007–2008 was 5.92% and 9.24% respectively (Government of India, 2012). These are very important numbers as wetlands (such as coral reefs, beaches, reservoirs, lakes and rivers) are considered

to be a significant part of the tourism experience and are likely to be a key part of the expansion in demand for learn more tourism locations (MEA, 2005 and Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and WTO, 2012). Every year, on an average nearly seven million tourist visit Kerala’s backwaters, beaches and wildlife sanctuaries; three million visit Uttarakhand’s lakes and other natural wetlands; one million visit Dal lake; and 20,000 visit lake Tsomoriri. In terms of growth in fish production in India, wetlands play a significant role. At the moment,

majority of fish production in the country is from inland water bodies (61% of total production), i.e. rivers; canals; reservoirs; tanks; ponds; and lakes (Table 2). It increased from 0.2 million tonne in 1950–1951 to about 5.1 million tonne in 2010–2011. Carp constitute about 80% of the total inland aquaculture production. Presently, the State of West Bengal occupies the topmost position (30% of total inland fish production) followed by Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, http://www.selleckchem.com/products/ch5424802.html Bihar and Orissa (Ministry of Agriculture, 2012). Overall, fisheries accounts for 1.2% of India’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 5.4% of total agricultural GDP. Swamps, mangroves, peat lands, mires and marshes many play an important role in carbon cycle. While wetland sediments are the long-term stores of carbon, short-term stores are in wetland existing biomass (plants, animals, bacteria and fungi) and dissolved components in the surface and groundwater (Wylynko, 1999). Though wetlands contribute about 40% of the global methane (CH4) emissions, they have the highest

carbon (C) density among terrestrial ecosystems and relatively greater capacities to sequester additional carbon dioxide (CO2) (Pant et al., 2003). Wetlands sequester C through high rates of organic matter inputs and reduced rates of decompositions (Pant et al., 2003). Wetland soils may contain as much as 200 times more C than its vegetation. However, drainage of large areas of wetlands and their subsequent cultivation at many places had made them a net source of CO2. Restoration of wetlands can reverse them to a sink of atmospheric CO2 (Lal, 2008). As per the estimations, carbon sequestration potential of restored wetlands (over 50 year period) comes out to be about 0.4 tonnes C/ha/year (IPCC, 2000). In India, coastal wetlands are playing a major role in carbon sequestration.