{"id":89406,"date":"2026-02-23T13:48:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=89406"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:48:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:18:30","slug":"kole-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/kole-wetlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Kole Wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Kole Wetlands Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A recent scientific study conducted at the Kole wetlands, a Ramsar-listed ecosystem in Kerala, has documented a total of 12 species of pygmy grasshoppers. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Kole Wetlands<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Kole wetlands are located in <\/span><b>Central Kerala,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that spreads over Thrissur and Malappuram districts.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is popular for its<\/span><b> paddy cultivation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that <\/span><b>dates back to 300 years.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The wetland <\/span><b>gets its name from its high productivity \u2013 \u2018Kole\u2019 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">literally <\/span><b>translates to \u2018bumper crop\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Malayalam.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Kole areas are <\/span><b>low-lying<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and have a <\/span><b>central, narrow strip <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">covering a long expanse,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with many pockets running into<\/span><b> cultivated land on either side.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The region is naturally subject to <\/span><b>saltwater ingression. During the monsoon, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the entire region, which <\/span><b>gets submerged<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under water, is cultivated by draining the water and by erecting bunds.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Kole is a large sprawling wetland with <\/span><b>human habitation all around,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> there are coconut and arecanut plantations, gardens, and cultivated plants.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of largest, highly productive, and <\/span><b>threatened wetlands in Kerala.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It comes in the<\/span><b> Central Asian Flyway of migratory birds.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>In terms of the number of birds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Kole Wetlands is the <\/span><b>third largest in India after Chilika Lake in Orissa and Amipur Tank in Gujarat.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has been recognised as one of India&#8217;s<\/span><b> Important Bird Areas by BirdLife International.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was declared as a <\/span><b>Ramsar site<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of international importance in 2002.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What are Pygmy Grasshoppers?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are any of about 1,400 species of <\/span><b>insects <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(order Orthoptera) that are <\/span><b>small <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(about 15 mm [0.6 inch] long), <\/span><b>brown, gray, or moss-green,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span><b> related to true grasshoppers.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the pygmy grasshopper has the <\/span><b>forewings either reduced to small pads or absent.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pygmy grasshopper is <\/span><b>distinguished from the short-horned grasshopper<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by its <\/span><b>practice of depositing its eggs singly in small grooves in the soil,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> rather than in underground chambers.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span><b> abundant in fields containing short grasses<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and on <\/span><b>muddy shores.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many species are dimorphic, having both a short form with reduced hindwings and a long form with functional hindwings.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Sound-producing and hearing organs are absent <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in pygmy grasshoppers.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/study-of-kole-wetlands-reveals-four-new-pygmy-grasshopper-species\/article70663280.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kole Wetlands in central Kerala span Thrissur and Malappuram districts, forming a vital Ramsar-listed ecosystem known for biodiversity, birdlife, and paddy cultivation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":89374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5657,21,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-89406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-kole-wetlands","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89406"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89449,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89406\/revisions\/89449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}