Overview
- The Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary, known as Surha Tal in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, was formally designated a Ramsar site on Friday, June 5, becoming India’s 100th listed wetland.
- Officials say the oxbow lake spans roughly 2,549–3,432 hectares and can expand to about 42 square kilometres in monsoon, and that it hosts more than 310 bird species including large wintering flocks of waterbirds.
- Ramsar status confers international recognition and carries expectations that state and national authorities will set up management plans, monitor ecological character, and seek scientific and technical support for conservation.
- Uttar Pradesh officials are promoting the listing as a route to boost eco‑tourism and local jobs through planned visitor amenities, signage, bird towers and small infrastructure projects already under way near the site.
- The Surha Tal designation marks Uttar Pradesh’s 13th Ramsar site and follows a recent state push that added other wetlands this year, a pattern that could shift regional funding and conservation attention to more basin‑level wetland management.