General narrative criteria:

Two wetlands were surveyed, one towards the village from Bandishola & the other at the village itself. The roadside one is of a private land adjoining forest boundary with Euca & wattle plantation. The source is from the upper reserved forests & a good flow. The location of the swamp is above 1934m above sea level & the perimeter is 0.4222km.

The area of the swamp is about 1.572acres. The second swamp is located in the village above 1648m & the perimeter is 0.4558km the area is about 0.8077 acres

Biological and botanical condition:

The vegetation of the first swamp is dominated by Scripus. Herbs like Plantago, Centella, Viola serpens, Rotala were seen on the marshy land. In the drier part of the wetland shrubs like Rubus, Solanum verbascifolium, Eupatorium, Lantana, Ulex, were seen. Tree fern, Cyathea was seen near the source of the wetland. Ferns like Pteris, Dicranoptreis were in the dry part of the wetland.

The vegetation of this swamp - Salix tetrasperma was the dominating species in the wetland. The wetland looked very compact, with the plant species close together. The ground cover was not been able to be observed to show the presence of water. Herbs and Shrubs like Polygonum spp., Ageratum, and Eupatorium were found as the second layer of plants. Acorus calamus and Scripus was found in small patches in-between the herbs. Solanum verbascifolium was in the dry parts of the wetland, at the edges. Near the outflow Debregeasia plants in small patch. The wetland was surrounded by Tea plantation and Housing.

 

Halakarai	Permissible limits	Observed value
pH	6.5-8.5	6.1
Temperature (0C)	10	19
Coliform	Nil
Fluoride	1.0 (max)	0.6
Residual Chloride (mg/l)	0.2	<0.2
Phosphorous (mg/l)		0.1
Iron (mg/l)	0.3	1
Hardness (mg/l)	300-600	40
Chlorides (mg/l)	250-1000	886.25
Ammonia	1.5	no colour change
Turbidity(NTU)	less than 5-10	10
Remark	soft water,low fluoride content

 

Threats:

Though the first wetland has a clean source there is no protection from the road side. People access it for various uses like washing clothes & drawing water for floriculture & other means. The Coonoor municipality has a well for drinking water & the well is always full with good recharge & the motor runs for 24 hrs a day throughout the year. The second swamp has been half covered by the village school ground leaving the other half as it is. Sewage drains into one side of the swamp. A burial ground near the swamp & waste are dumped into the swamp. Many parts along the periphery are used to answer natures call.