Tamil Nadu is the only State in the country to boast of as many as 20 wetlands designated as ‘Ramsar sites’ of international importance in accordance with an intergovernmental environmental treaty signed at Ramsar in Iran in 1971, the State Wetland Authority told the Madras High Court on Wednesday (November 12, 2025).
Appearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan, senior counsel P. Wilson, representing the Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority (TNSWA), said, the State government was very keen on protecting the wetlands and not allow them to vanish.
When the Chief Justice asked why then a public interest litigation petition had been filed in the court alleging construction of high rise residential towers within the Ramsar site around Pallikaranai marshland in Chennai, the senior counsel said, the petitioner’s averments remain to be just allegations as on date.
He said, the ‘ground truthing’ exercise to fix the boundaries of the Ramsar site at Pallikaranai was yet to be concluded fully and that the Supreme Court, in a case related to protection of wetlands across the country, had granted time till December 2 for the TNSWA to submit its ‘ground truthing’ report.
