Impact of Declining Trend of Flow on Harike Wetland, India Sanjay K. Jain & Archana Sarkar & Vaibhav Garg Received: 25 January 2006 / Accepted: 27 March 2007 / Published online: 2 September 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract Harike wetland in the Indian state of Punjab is formed by a barrage built downstream on the confluence of rivers Satluj and Beas, with the idea of storing and providing irrigation and drinking water to parts of Southern Punjab and adjoining Rajasthan. Due to decrease in flow at Harike and deforestation etc. in the catchment area, the wetland is reducing in the last few years. In this study, the analysis of rainfall/runoff data has been carried out to see the effect of decreasing trend of runoff on wetland area. Wetland area has been delineated using remote sensing technique. The analysis of rainfall, discharge and ground water level showed that the flow pattern is decreasing at Harike. The remote sensing data revealed that the wetland area has reduced approximately 30% over the last 13 years. Keywords Wetland . Runoff . Ground water . Remote sensing . Aquatic . Waterlogged 1 Introduction Wetlands form a major category of aquatic ecosystems. Generally, they are not only physically sandwiched between the terrestrial and open water systems (lakes and rivers) but are also transitional in nature between the two (Gopal 1994). Wetlands are characterized by soils that remain waterlogged or under shallow water permanently or for periods long enough to cause certain changes in their physico-chemical and biological characteristics and to allow the growth and development of plant and animal communities specifically adapted to the particular hydrological regimes (Mitsch and Gosselink 2000). Peatlands, marshes, swamps, mangroves, shallow lakes (less than 3 m deep), floodplains and the littoral zones of lakes are all wetlands. Wetlands occur in all places starting from tropical to temperate regions including high altitudes. At global level these ecosystems occupy about 6% of the Water Resour Manage (2008) 22:409–421 DOI 10.1007/s11269-007-9169-9 S. K. Jain (*) : A. Sarkar : V. Garg National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee 247 667, India e-mail: sjain@nih.ernet.in