WETLAND TYPES AND ASSOCIATE VEGETATION IN NEPAL:AN OVERVIEW

The lands with water,in general,are consideredas wetlands.The wetlands are most complex andhighly productive but more vulnerable ecosystem inthe earth.The wetland systems directly support mil-lions of people and provide good and services to theworld.They …

WETLAND TYPES AND ASSOCIATE VEGETATION IN NEPAL:AN OVERVIEW

Wetland is the transitional zone between the permanently wet and dry environment and shares the characteristics of the environment. Wetland is not yet to be classified unambiguously as either aquatic or terrestrial. However, the Ramsar Convention adopts an extremely broad approach in determining the wetland; as a result, several varieties of habitat types are included under the wetland definition. Wetlands are among the world's most productive ecosystems and provide a wide variety of goods and services. Nepal lies on the southern slopes of central Himalayas and occupies a total area of 147 181 km2 between the latitudes 26°22′ N and 30°27′ N and the longitudes 80°40′ E and 88°12′ E. The diverse landscape (60-8 848 m) and bioclimatic conditions (alpine to tropical) of the country provide a unique niche for different types of wetlands. These are distributed from high altitudinal glacial lakes to hot springs, ponds, ox-bow lakes to river floodplains, marshes and swamps. The country has 15 types of inland freshwater natural wetlands as classified by the Ramsar Convention. These wetlands house several species of rare and endangered flora and fauna. The present paper attempts to highlight the various types of wetlands in Nepal with associate vegetation.