RAS question
After the addition of Patna Bird Sanctuary and Chhari-Dhand as Ramsar Sites in January 2026, what is the total number of Ramsar Wetland Sites in India?
Correct answer: (A) 98.
After the addition of Patna Bird Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh and Chhari-Dhand in Gujarat, India has 98 Ramsar Wetland Sites.
Explanation
India's Ramsar count reached 98 after two new wetlands were added to the national Ramsar network: Patna Bird Sanctuary in Etah district of Uttar Pradesh and Chhari-Dhand in Kutch district of Gujarat. The PIB release from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change states that these additions were announced ahead of World Wetlands Day 2026 and that India's network stood at 98 sites at present. This is why 98 is the right total, not merely an approximate figure. The context is the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty on wetlands signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, under which wetlands of particular conservation value may be designated as Wetlands of International Importance.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) 95 is too low because the cited PIB release says the two additions took India's Ramsar network to 98 sites at present.
- (C) 100 is too high because the official announcement records the present total after these additions as 98, not a rounded milestone of 100.
- (D) 82 is an older, lower count and does not reflect the January 2026 inclusion of Patna Bird Sanctuary and Chhari-Dhand cited in the question.
Concept
This tests Environment and Ecology current affairs through the Ramsar Convention and India's Wetlands of International Importance. RAS repeatedly asks such count-based updates because they link conservation treaties with recently notified Indian sites.