Visit of Menar Wetlands to Understand the Community Led Protection of Water Bodies to Provide Refuge to Resident and Migratory Bird Species

The Menar wetlands (situated in the village Menar, approximately 50 km from Udaipur City, in Rajasthan state of India) are a unique example of community sensitivity towards protection of local water bodies that are their life supporting ecosystems. The village community has banned any agriculture activity within catchment area of the wetlands as well as has protected the natural habitat in such a way that these water bodies host a large number of resident as well as migratory birds from all over the worlds. The Menar wetlands have been recently registered in the Important Bird Area (IBA) sites of the country and efforts being made to get this registered as Ramsar wetland as well. St. Mary of the Angels, Udaipur has taken initiatives of spreading the community awareness towards nature and natural resources and in this regard in partnership with the Institute for Ecology and Livelihood Action (IELA) they have planned visit to Menar wetland IBA site to see and understand the community efforts towards wetland and biodiversity protection.