Udhagamandalam: Under the aegis of the Public Awareness Association of Udhagamandalam, World Wetlands Day was observed here on Tuesday. At a brief function organised inside the verdant arboretum (tree garden) near the Ooty Lake, a number of tiny-tots studying in the CSI Matriculation School took a pledge to protect the wetlands. The Secretary of the Association G. Janardhanan, who administered the pledge, lamented that wetlands which once abounded in the Nilgiris are now hard to come by. Listing the reasons for their disappearance, he said that the proliferation of buildings and expansion of area under ecological predators like eucalyptus trees had led to the loss of many wetlands. Adverting to the importance of the Nilgiris vis-