India's Ramsar Site Tally Reaches 103 with Sukhna, Sauj Jheel

India's roll of internationally recognised wetlands has grown once more. On 15 October 2026 the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav, said the country's count of Ramsar sites had climbed to 103. Two water bodies account for the latest rise: the Sukhna Wetland in Chandigarh and Sauj Jheel in Uttar Pradesh.

The two newest entries

Sukhna, familiar to most visitors as Sukhna Lake, lies in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Sauj Jheel is in Uttar Pradesh. Their designation places both on the worldwide register of wetlands held to be of international importance. The minister offered his congratulations to Uttar Pradesh and to Chandigarh on the recognition, and told travellers with a couple of free days to spare that the two spots are worth a visit for their natural beauty.

Why the recognition matters

Making the announcement through a social media post, the minister said the country keeps tightening its resolve to look after wetlands. He set the step inside the broader weight the government has put on these ecosystems under Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, singling out three returns in particular: guarding biodiversity, firming up water and climate security, and holding up the livelihoods of people who live beside such water bodies. The fresh entries, he added, restate a continuing effort to look after the country's rich store of wetland ecosystems and to widen the ecological, climatic and livelihood dividends they hand back. His post carried the hashtag #AmritDharohar, the banner under which the government speaks of the country's natural heritage.

At a glance

For an aspirant, the number is the thing to fix in memory. The national figure of 103 is the count that follows these two designations; questions on wetlands routinely turn on the running total and on the state or Union Territory that a named site belongs to. Note also who made the announcement, the ministry he heads, and the date on which the addition was made public.