On World Wetlands Day, that is, on February 2, the Aravalli Biodiversity Park was announced as the first Other Effective Area – based Conservation Measures site, OECM site.

What is OECM?

The OECM tag is provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN. According to IUCN, the OECM sites are not protected but are rich in biodiversity. The Aravalli hills are the first OECM site of the country. The proposal to make Aravallis as the OECM was made by the National Biodiversity Authority

About the Aravalli Biodiversity Park

The park is spread over 390 acres. It has a semi – arid vegetation. It has more than 43,000 shrubs, 101,000 trees and 300 endemic plant species. Earlier, the park was a mining site. It was transformed into a city forest through immense efforts of environmentalists, scientists, ecologists along with the local population. Aravallis are considered as the green lungs of Delhi. They support leopards, fox, sambhar and jackals. The Aravallis provide 7.07% of oxygen to Delhi.

Need for the tag

25% of the Aravallis was lost due to illegal mining. According to CAG, there were more than 4,0000 illegal mining cases. Since 1960s, 31 hills vanished from the hills.

Significance of Aravallis

The Aravallis act as a barrier between the desert in the west and the fertile land in the east. The Aravallis stops the monsoon clouds and brings rains to Nainital and Shimla. The hill function as the groundwater recharge for the region.