"Testing in containment and buffer zones have gone up and we are targeting more people" an official said. The Wetland Authority of Delhi has constituted a technical committee, which will help in conservation of waterbodies. As the land-owing agencies have prepared documents for notifying 368 waterbodies, the technical committee will review their plans and assist them in technical matters. A senior official of the environment department said, "We had received just 23 bried documents in July last year, but number of documents prepared rose to 368 in July this year. The newly constituted body will review the brief documents management plans of wetlands prepared by the departments concerned and advise on any technical matter referred by the Wetland Authority of Delhi. The official added that the process of notification of wetlands will begin after the committee reveiws the brief documents of 368 waterbodies. The Chief economist at World Resources Institute at Delhi, Madhu Verma, is the Chairperson of the committee. The other committee members are from Teri University, Centre for Science and Environment, water technology centre from India Agricultural reserch institute, wetlands international south asia, member of prime minister's science and technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PMSTIAC) and member secretary of Wetland Authority of Delhi. Earlier, TOI had reported that Delhi currently does not have a single notified waterbody. The Union ministry of environment and forest and climate change came out with guidelines last year for implementing Wetlands (Conservation and Managment) Rules, 2017. The guidelines stated that for each wetland proposed to be notified, a 'brief document' has to be prepared with information like demarcation of wetland boundary for enforcement of regulation. Mucormycosis or black funds has emerged as a bigger challenge than Covid-19 in the capital for now Currently, there are far more active blackfunds cases than Covid positive cases. These are mostly patients who took steroids without a doctors's prescription and used oxygen cylinders at home while they were infected with the virus.
