India Friday committed to join Central Asian efforts to conserve the natural habitats of migratory water birds like the Siberian crane.

"India will strongly support all initiatives to welcome back the Siberian crane to our existing and future network of wetlands," said Minister of Environment and Forests A. Raja while inaugurating a four-day meet here Friday to endorse the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) action plan to conserve migratory water birds and their habitats.

Attended by delegates from 30 countries, the four-day meeting will discuss legislative and other institutional framework for facilitating conservation of migratory water birds, regulation of hunting and other disturbances, management and restoration of water bird habitats, capacity building for monitoring and research, and increasing awareness on the problems of migratory water birds.
 
"The conservation and management of water birds is a priority under the National Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016) duly supported by the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972," said the minister.

He pointed out that India also has bilateral and multilateral agreements to safeguard migratory water birds.

India has so far notified 19 Ramsar wetland sites and many more are being evaluated for nomination, together with a complimentary programme for their management, the minister said.

Scientific organisations in the country have recommended over 300 potential sites.

The government is also considering setting up a National Network of Wetland Protected Area, while a national wetland policy is also under consideration, the minister said.

India supports more than 1,200 species of birds, including 250 species of water birds. Many of these species are migratory birds requiring conducive habitats located in different countries across north, central and south Asia.

"Conservation of their habitats has been a challenging task. The exponential growth in human population, political unrest and war, hunting and the rapid degradation of the wetland habitats along the migratory routes have adversely affected the water bird populations," said Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena.

Prodipto Ghosh, secretary in the ministry of environment and forests, underlined that the migratory fauna do not recognise political boundaries and as such, India would look forward to establishing cooperative arrangements with neighbouring countries in such cases.

"Protection of water birds, which migrate to and from India to a wider and non-boundary sharing set of countries would also require the establishment of appropriate instruments for joint action," Ghosh stressed.

India has several wetland sites of significant importance like the Suderbans, the west coast mangroves, the coral reef systems in the Gulf of Mannar, the Terai region in the foothills of the Himalayas and Manas in the northeast that require careful management plans.