Conservation and wise use of wetlands has been given priority world over. India harbours diverse types of wetlands. This study highlights the findings of the national-level inventory and assessment of wetlands carried out using RESOURCESAT-1 LISS-III data of 2006–07 at 1 : 50,000 scale. A hierarchical system comprising 19 classes based on Ramsar definition has been used to classify the wetlands of India. The extent of wetlands has been estimated to be 15.26 m ha. Inland wetlands account for 69.22% (10.564 m ha), whereas the coastal wetlands account for 27.13% (4.14 m ha).

We studied the waterbird diversity and abundance in a newly constructed wetland in South Bengal for 14 years right from its establishment. Soon after its construction, the wetland began to attract a rich diversity of waterbirds and with the passage of time has proved its potentiality to achieve the status of a wetland of international importance. Since 2005, it continues to support Greylag Goose at populations exceeding 1% threshold, and from 2007 onwards harbours Ruddy Shelduck at populations exceeding 1% threshold.

Wetlands are among the most productive and economically valuable ecosystems in the world. However, because of human activities, over half of the wetland ecosystems existing in North America, Europe, Australia, and China in the early 20th century have been lost. Ecological restoration to recover critical ecosystem services has been widely attempted, but the degree of actual recovery of ecosystem functioning and structure from these efforts remains uncertain.

It is widely held that humankind's destructive tendencies when exploiting natural resources leads to irreparable harm to the environment. Yet, this thinking runs counter to evidence that many ecological systems damaged by severe natural environmental disturbances (e.g., hurricanes) can restore themselves via processes of natural recovery. The emerging field of restoration ecology is capitalizing on the natural restorative tendencies of ecological systems to build a science of repairing the harm inflicted by humans on natural environment.