Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority

Wetlands of Tamil Nadu

Area estimates of various wetland categories for Tamilnadu have been carried out using GIS layers of wetland boundary, water-spread, vegetation and turbidity. 24684 wetlands have been mapped at 1:50,000 scale in Tamil Nadu. Total wetland area estimated is 902534 ha which is 6.92 % of the geographic area. As per National Wetland Atlas published by Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad.

Sr. No	Wettcode	Wetland Category	Number of Wetlands	Total Wetland Area	% of Wetland area	Open Water Area in ha
Sr. No	Wettcode	Wetland Category	Number of Wetlands	Total Wetland Area	% of Wetland area	Post- monsoon Area	Pre- monsoon Area
	1100	Inland Wetlands - Natural
1	1101	Lakes/Ponds	4369	316091	35.02	236456	45436
2	1104	Riverine wetlands	2	127	0.01	121	41
3	1105	Waterlogged	44	3928	0.44	3382	2168
4	1106	River/Stream	194	136878	15.17	131049	131479
	1200	Inland Wetlands-Man-made
5	1201	Reservoirs/Barrages	99	56419	6.25	46443	31064
6	1202	Tanks/Ponds	19343	237613	26.33	164346	23078
7	1203	Waterlogged	38	10811	1.20	9353	5816
		Total – Inland	24089	761867	84.41	591150	239082
	2100	Coastal Wetlands - Natural
8	2101	Lagoons	74	25057	2.78	25041	22034
9	2102	Creeks	17	3404	0.38	3339	3403
10	2103	Sand/Beach	73	9798	1.09	-	-
11	2104	Intertidal mud flats	84	33164	3.67	-	-
12	2105	Salt Marsh	42	6108	0.68	5369	2596
13	2106	Mangroves	78	7315	0.81	-	-
14	2107	Coral Reefs	36	3899	0.43	-	-
	2200	Coastal Wetlands –Man-made
15	2201	Salt pans	47	22889	2.54	22505	19733
16	2202	Aquaculture ponds	144	10739	1.19	10457	9420
		Total – Coastal	595	122373	13.56	66711	57186
		Sub-Total	24684	884240	97.97	657861	296268
		Wetlands (<2.25 ha), mainly Tanks	18294	18294	2.03	-	-
		Total	42978	902534	100.00	657861	296268

Area under Aquatic Vegetation	167273	531600
Area under turbidity levels
Low	314273	70189
Moderate	247677	159206
High	95911	66873

Type wise wetland distribution in Tamil Nadu

DISTRICT-WISE WETLAND MAPS AND STATISTICS

There are 30 districts. The geographic area of the districts varies from 178 sq.km (Chennai) to 8162 sq.km (Erode). The wetlands occupy as high as 18.05% of geographic area (Ramanathapuram District), and as low as 1.08% (Coimbatore). In terms of total wetland area (% wetland area), Kancheepuram is the leading district (80445 ha, 8.91%) and Chennai is the least (917 ha, 0.10%).

Lakes/Ponds and Tanks/Ponds are the dominant wetland types in almost all districts. In coastal areas, Lagoons, inter tidal mudflats and Saltpans are dominant wetland types.

District-wise wetland area

District	Geographic Area*	Wetland Area	% of total wetland area	% of district geographic area
District	(sq.km)	(ha)	% of total wetland area	% of district geographic area
Thiruvallur	3422	53863	5.97	15.74
Chennai	178	917	0.10	5.15
Kancheepuram	7857	80445	8.91	10.24
Vellore	6077	32640	3.62	5.37
Dharmapuri	4498	18215	2.02	4.05
Thiruvannamalai	6191	48130	5.33	7.77
Villupuram	7222	64105	7.10	8.88
Salem	5205	15270	1.69	2.93
Namakkal	3363	7687	0.85	2.29
Erode	8162	13570	1.50	1.66
The Nilgiris	2453	3127	0.35	1.27
Coimbatore	7469	8070	0.89	1.08
Dindigul	6267	13815	1.53	2.20
Karur	2896	16383	1.82	5.66
Thiruchirappalli	4404	18626	2.06	4.23
Permabalur	3690	8070	0.89	2.19
Ariyalur**	1942	11042	1.22	5.69
Cuddalore	3678	28135	3.12	7.65
Nagapattinam	2716	47833	5.30	17.61
Thiruvarur	2097	22591	2.50	10.77
Thanjavur	3348	34184	3.79	10.21
Pudukottai	4663	72402	8.02	15.53
Sivaganga	4189	67172	7.44	16.04
Madurai	3742	24614	2.73	6.58
Theni	3242	5293	0.59	1.63
Virudhunagar	4232	29071	3.22	6.87
Ramanathapuram	4090	73808	8.18	18.05
Thoothukudi	4621	37810	4.19	8.18
Tirunelveli	6823	37709	4.18	5.53
Kanniyakumari	1672	7937	0.88	4.75
Total	130409	902534	100.00	6.92

*Census 2001 data is used ** GIS data is used.
Download PDF