Lake Ousteri: An Artificial Wet Land Lagoon for Tourists in Puducherry

Wet land, are water bodies of different types ranging from lakes, estuarine area, riparian flood plains to tidal mud-flats, play a vital role in ensuring both the quality and quantity of water for human beings and the entire range of flora and fauna. It provide fresh water for agriculture, livestock and domestic consumption and recharge the ground water levels which are under immense strain of over-exploitation. Detailed economic studies on wetland tourism are not always available but the income from tourism can support the wise use of wetlands which in turn sustains tourism activities. The fact that environmental damage hurts people both today and tomorrow, if the future provides additional grounds for rethinking our measurement of progress towards sustainability. However ever increasing, multiple demands on water resources for agriculture, irrigation, domestic, industrial supplies have greatly impacted upon the ecosystems. Yet little attention is paid for the restoration, conservation and sustainability of wetland ecosystems which contribute significantly to the food security and economy of the local community. In Puducherry, well known wetlands are Ousteri and Bahour. During the year 2008, Ousteri wetland, largest lake in Puducherry was declared as a bird sanctuary, home for hundreds of species of migratory birds, variety of fishes, mussels and crabs, and breeding sites of common coot in South India. With this backdrop, the study deals with primary and secondary sources with survey methods on socio-economic and biological, flora and fauna parameters in and around the lake area for developing wetland tourism. Conservation and sustainable wet land tourism management is urgently required with appropriate institutional arrangements for sustainable development, implementation of policy, long term planning strategies with sustainable management action plan with a hope to achieve the objectives, with the help of community involvement.