Uttarakhand’s first Ramsar site is not in Rajaji. Asan Conservation Reserve is a 444.4-hectare wetland at the confluence of the Asan River and the Yamuna near Dhalipur in Dehradun district — notified as a Conservation Reserve in 2005, designated under the Ramsar Convention in 2020, and still the state’s only Ramsar site as of 2026. This page sets out what the official records say about it: the dates, the areas, the species counts and the legal instrument that came first, and it keeps the site firmly outside Rajaji, because it is separate in river, in forest division and in notification.
Sources checked on 1 November 2026: the Ramsar record for site no. 2437 and the site’s Ramsar Information Sheet, published 16 October 2020; MoEFCC’s Ramsar Sites of India factsheets; MoEFCC’s list of Ramsar sites as on 21 April 2026; and the Uttarakhand State Wetland Authority’s note on Asan Conservation Reserve.
The designation, in dates
Three dates matter and they are usually collapsed into one. Asan was designated a Wetland of International Importance as Ramsar site no. 2437 on 21 July 2020; the site record was published on 16 October 2020, which is the date MoEFCC’s own list gives as the date of declaration; and the national protection that governs the ground predates both by fifteen years. MoEFCC’s list of Ramsar sites as on 21 April 2026 shows a single entry against Uttarakhand — Asan Conservation Reserve — so on the ministry’s own most recent list it remains the state’s only Ramsar site.
Size and setting
The official area is 444.4 hectares, and the area calculated from the site’s GIS boundaries is 439.023 hectares — two numbers for one site, published in the same record, which is why both are printed here rather than one rounded into the other. The reserve is the stretch of the Asan River running down to its confluence with the Yamuna near village Dhalipur. The Asan Barrage, built in 1967, dammed the river, and the siltation behind the dam wall produced the shallow, vegetated, bird-use habitats the site is known for. MoEFCC classifies the wetland type as barrage or freshwater reservoir, with the Uttarakhand Forest Department as the management authority.
The site is also a working structure rather than a fenced wilderness: the Information Sheet records that both the Irrigation Department, through Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited, and the Forest Department control large parts of the reserve, and that water enters through the Yamuna canal and the Asan River and leaves through the canal that feeds hydro-electric stations downstream. Villages — Dhalipur, Kunja, Kunja Grant, Kulhal and Dhakrani — sit around the boundary, with the interstate boundary with Himachal Pradesh forming the northern edge.
The instrument that came first
Ramsar designation recognised the site; it did not create it. Asan was notified as a Conservation Reserve by the Government of Uttaranchal under section 36A of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, by order No. 2414(1)/X-2-2005-19(1)/2004 dated 5 August 2005. The Ramsar Information Sheet names the Divisional Forest Officer, Chakrata Forest Division, Kalsi as the site contact — an administrative detail worth holding on to, because it shows which forest division runs the place, and it is not Rajaji’s. Fifteen years later the Ramsar designation added an international instrument on top of that state order.
What lives there
MoEFCC’s factsheet gives the site’s species richness as 330 birds, 49 fishes, 20 mammals, 5 reptiles and amphibians, and 30 plants. Two waterbird populations cross the Ramsar 1% threshold that supports criterion 6 of the site’s designation: ruddy shelduck, counted at 2.03% of the relevant population, and red-crested pochard at 1.02%. The site qualifies under criteria 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 — the last for fish spawning, feeding and migration routes, which is why the fish count sits in the designation rather than in a visitor brochure. The Information Sheet also records the site’s Important Bird Area listing as Asan Barrage, and the state wetland authority’s note places it on the Central Asian Flyway.
The five criteria are worth spelling out, because they are the reason the site qualified: rare or threatened species and ecological communities (2), biological diversity (3), support during a critical life-cycle stage or in adverse conditions (4), more than 1% of a waterbird population (6), and fish spawning grounds (8). The 1% test is arithmetic rather than reputation. The Information Sheet records ruddy shelduck at 2.03% and red-crested pochard at 1.02% of their relevant populations, with 1% reference levels of 500 and 1,000 respectively. Those reference levels are thresholds, not counts: a site qualifies when its regular count reaches 1% of the population, and the percentages show how far above that line the recorded populations sit.
Not Rajaji’s wetland
The distinction is practical, not pedantic. Asan lies in the Yamuna basin in Dehradun district; Rajaji’s waters are the Ganga and its tributaries, and Rajaji’s own counts and boundaries belong to a different set of notifications — 1983, 2013 and 2015 — rather than a 2005 state order under section 36A. Asan is administered through Chakrata Forest Division, not through the Rajaji directorate. Calling Asan “Rajaji’s wetland” would attach an international designation to a reserve that does not hold it, and it would send a visitor to the wrong river. For Rajaji’s own water, the rivers and waterholes guide covers the Ganga, its tributaries and the dry-season concentration points; for the boundary arithmetic, the legal boundary figures sets out the three areas Rajaji is quoted with.
Watching, and what this page will not promise
Asan is a birding destination rather than a safari one: criterion 4 covers the site’s role as wintering and staging habitat for migratory waterbirds, and the record lists globally threatened species alongside the two 1% populations. The factsheet sets the site’s values and its pressures side by side — habitat for migratory birds, water for energy production, groundwater recharge, recreation and tourism, and scientific and educational value against hydrological regime alteration, urban drainage pollution, siltation, encroachment, invasive species and regime fragmentation. This page publishes no sighting advice, no timings and no access rules — those belong to the managing department on the day, and none of them is a promise that any particular bird will be present. What the official record does support is the inventory above, each figure with its source.
Where to read next
For the water inside Rajaji, start with the rivers and waterholes guide; for Rajaji’s birds, the birdwatching guide; for another wetland-style protected area in the same state that is part of Rajaji, Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Reserve. The districts question — which rivers and reserves sit where — is covered in the location and districts guide, and the counting records for the state’s elephants are set out in the official elephant census series. Sources checked 1 November 2026.
Asan Conservation Reserve: questions answered
Is Asan Conservation Reserve part of Rajaji?
No. Asan is a separate protected area in Dehradun district at the confluence of the Asan River and the Yamuna, administered through Chakrata Forest Division and lying in the Yamuna basin; Rajaji lies in the Ganga basin with its own notifications and its own directorate. Asan is never described here as Rajaji’s wetland. The Ramsar record for Asan: https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/2437
When did Asan become a Ramsar site, and is it Uttarakhand’s only one?
It is Ramsar site no. 2437, designated on 21 July 2020, with the site record published on 16 October 2020 — the declaration date MoEFCC’s own list carries. The MoEFCC list of Ramsar sites as on 21 April 2026 shows a single Uttarakhand entry, so it remained the state’s only Ramsar site as of 2026: https://moef.gov.in/uploads/pdf-uploads/pdf_698ae4f8f28953.18411376.pdf
How large is the reserve?
The official Ramsar area is 444.4 hectares; the area calculated from the site’s GIS boundaries is 439.023 hectares. The site is a stretch of the Asan River running down to its confluence with the Yamuna near village Dhalipur, and MoEFCC classifies the wetland type as barrage or freshwater reservoir, with the Uttarakhand Forest Department as management authority: https://moef.gov.in/uploads/2021/01/Ramsaar-Factsheets_2020_Low-3_compressed-2.pdf
What lives in Asan Conservation Reserve?
MoEFCC’s factsheet gives species richness of 330 birds, 49 fishes, 20 mammals, 5 reptiles and amphibians and 30 plants. Two waterbird populations cross the Ramsar 1% threshold behind criterion 6 — ruddy shelduck at 2.03% and red-crested pochard at 1.02% — and the site also carries an Important Bird Area listing and a place on the Central Asian Flyway: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s3fcdb3b4550e745d29a64a696047067b7/uploads/2025/10/202510231518195071.pdf
What protected Asan before the Ramsar designation?
It was notified as a Conservation Reserve under section 36A of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 by Government of Uttaranchal order No. 2414(1)/X-2-2005-19(1)/2004 dated 5 August 2005 — fifteen years before the Ramsar designation, which recognised the site rather than creating it: https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/2437