Subject: On the coastal border areas of India and Pakistan

Dear Forum Members:

A very happy and joyous year to all!

I would like to share the following article that will appear in the next
issue of Disarmament Forum, the quarterly journal of UNIDIR, Vol. 1, No. 1,
1999. 

I look forward to your comments. 

Gaurav Rajen

_________________________________

A Proposal to Declare the Sir Creek Trans-Border Area Between India and
Pakistan a Part of a Protected Wetland

To be published in Disarmament Forum Vol. 1, No. 1, 1999

In early 1971, with the storm clouds of war ready to break later in the year
in a horrendous killing deluge, India and Pakistan were yet able to find
common ground at Ramsar in Iran and become Contracting Parties of the
International Convention on Wetlands. Today, faced with a critical need to
engage in confidence building measures that can reduce nuclear tensions, the
protection of wetlands could form the basis for initiating improvements in
Indian and Pakistani relations.

The resumption of talks between India and Pakistan "for the peaceful
settlement of outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir" was announced
on September 23, 1998, in a joint statement by the Prime Ministers of India
and Pakistan. The talks will begin with the issues of Jammu and Kashmir and
peace and security, and also address six other areas identified from more
than a decade ago. One of these issues is defining the international
boundary along Sir Creek, a sixty-mile long estuary in the salty marshlands
of the Rann of Kutch between the states of Gujarat in India and Sind in
Pakistan.

In 1965, armed clashes resulted from Pakistan's claim that half of the Rann
of Kutch along the 24th parallel was Pakistan's territory and India's claim
that the boundary ran roughly along the northern edge of the Rann. The
matter was referred to arbitration and the Indo-Pakistan Western Boundary
Case Tribunal's Award on February 19, 1968, upheld most of India's claim to
the entire Rann, conceding very small sections to Pakistan. Unfortunately,
the Tribunal left the Sir Creek part of the boundary out of consideration as
it was deemed to be already agreed on. At issue now is whether the boundary
lies in the middle of Sir Creek as India believes, or on its east bank, as
Pakistan insists. Despite the differences regarding the Sir Creek issue, it
is one that could relatively easily be resolved between India and Pakistan,
initiating a process of an incremental reduction in tensions. 

One approach to reaching agreement on the Sir Creek boundary involves the
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands that India and Pakistan have already signed
and ratified. Pakistan has declared the Chashma Barrage, Drigh Lake, Haleji
Lake, Kinjhar Lake, Tanda Dam, Taunsa Barrage, Thanedar Wala and the Uchhali
Complex of lakes as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar
Convention. These total over 60,000 hectares. India has declared the Chilka
Lake, Harike Lake, Keoladeo National Park, Loktak Lake, Sambhar lake, and
Wular Lake as Ramsar sites, totaling over 190,000 hectares. One of the
criteria for declaring an area as a Ramsar Wetland of International
Importance is the following - "a particularly good representative example of
a wetland which plays a substantial hydrological, biological or ecological
role in the natural functioning of a major river basin or coastal system,
especially where it is located in a trans-border position". Portions of the
Rann of Kutch including the Sir Creek area are clearly worthy of designation
as a Ramsar site. If both India and Pakistan declare their contiguous
coastal portions of the Rann of Kutch to be Wetlands of International
Importance, worthy of joint and cooperative efforts for protection, many of
the contentious issues around the Sir Creek boundary dispute could be
resolved. An integrated plan for the development of the marine and coastal
zone in this area could be developed jointly - and this could ultimately
lead to further cooperation for mutual benefit in the development of ocean
resources. The exact location of the boundary along the Sir Creek would
become moot.
  
Coastal and intertidal wetlands are complex ecosystems that link land
surface processes with the oceans. Coastal wetlands serve as natural filters
that trap sediments and pollution present in surface run-off and intertidal
movement of water, thereby regulating phytoplankton growth and fish
populations in adjoining ocean regions. The roots and falling organic
material of plants that grow in coastal wetlands provide nurseries and food
for marine life. Protection of the Rann and a deeper understanding of its
hydrological and ecological processes are crucial to the protection of the
coral reefs in the Gulf of Kutch. The plume of sewage and industrial
pollution traveling more than 150 km south from Karachi into the coastal
areas of the Rann also needs to be studied and mitigated. Mangrove forests
within the Indus delta have been largely destroyed, and there is ample scope
for India and Pakistan to cooperate on regional mangrove restoration
efforts.    

The Red Sea Marine Peace Park jointly managed by Israel and Jordan in the
Gulf of Aqaba as a part of their peace treaty makes an excellent model for
the joint protection and development of the coastal areas of the Rann of
Kutch. India is one of the few countries in the world with an Ocean Policy.
In its closing paragraph, this Ocean Policy requires "close cooperation with
both developing and developed countries in a spirit of understanding of the
concept that oceans are a common heritage of humankind". In 1998, the
International Year of the Oceans, recognizing the linkages between land,
coastal and ocean processes, India and Pakistan could solve the Sir Creek
issue by protecting areas of the Rann of Kutch and adjacent seas.



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