Correlation of stagnant wetland depths and their ecological status in the Central Tamil Nadu District, Tamil Nadu.

The wetland stagnation is the premise of the wetland depth (WD) but is lacking in detail. The research looks into the correlation of stagnant wetland's depth and their ecological status in the Central Tamil Nadu District (CTND) because of few studies. Seventy-five chosen stagnant wetlands are hydrologically isolated; depths were categorized into less than 5 ft., 6 to 10 and above 10 ft., surveyed by the range of methods from districts such as Karur (KD), Namakkal (ND) and Tiruchirappalli (TD). The human disturbance score (HDS) is categorized as least impacted (0-33), moderately impacted (33-67) and highly impacted (67-100). The impacts of land use and land cover (LULC) changes over 9 years (2010-2019) through the maximum likelihood method. Overall, 54% of wetland depths (WD) were less than 5 ft.; 25.6% were 6-10 ft. and 20.2% were 100 ft. District-wise, wetland degradation was the utmost in the TD, followed by ND and KD. Except in KD, the remaining district wetlands were of MI category with diverse HDS. The correlation test revealed a positive relationship between WD against the alteration of the buffer zone, habitat, hydrology and HDS. However, it is a negative relationship between landscape alteration and wetland pollution. The impacts of land use and land cover (LULC) changes confirm that severe decline in wetlands habitat and water bodies' area is due to built-up area, cultivated land expansion and increasing population. Our study provided evidence that the WD is connected to wetland conditions that have a quantitative influence, and the ramifications of the findings were examined in the context of local development planning. Additional research will be needed due to limited surveyed wetlands with similar geographical locations.