Of the various wetland types mentioned above, 'Gam Talav' (village ponds) and the 'Sim Talav' (countryside ponds) are abundant in the state. They dominate the rural landscape of Gujarat. The rural Gujarat is dotted with numerous natural, semi-natural and man-made ponds of varied shapes, size and depth. Though many of them are seasonal, they play an important role of providing habitat to numerous resident and migratory waterfowl. The growth of trees at several inland wetlands provides roosting and/ or nesting site to the resident waterfowl like egrets, herons, cormorants, storks, ibises and spoonbills. Several ponds in rural and sub-urban areas provide breeding site for the endangered Indian Sarus Crane. ManySim Talav' are rich in social-economically important aquatic plants like Typha ('Ghabajariyun'), Nymphaea ('Kamal Kakdi'), Nelumbo ('Kamal' /'Gretel') and Traphy ('Singed'). Rural communities still depend on ponds for various domestic and economic purposes (ranging from drinking water to irrigation), though such dependence was much more in the past.

Apart from the ponds, the state harbours a large number of reservoirs, which are primarily meant for irrigation purpose. Pariej and Kanewl in Kneda District (Central Gujarat) and Thol in Meshing district (N. Gujarat) are well known for their high diversity and population of the wintering waterfowl. There are several reservoirs in Saurashtra and Kutch. Some of them are: Lalpari, Nyari, Aji, Veri, Sardhan, Alangsagar, Hargovind, Ramdhan, Valavas, Hiram, Sapde, Falzar, Muli, Sukhbhadar, Nava Talav in saurashtra; and Hamirsar, Bhimasar, Sinnari, Dewisar, Rudramata, Ningher, Lair, Don, Topansar, Vijaysagar in Kutch. Wadhvana, Ajwa, Timbi, Mowal, Mahasar, Mohmmad pura, Pratap-pura are from Vadodara. Total area of tanks and reservoirs in the state is about 1,600 sq. km.

There are few natural lakes in the state having the total area of 15380 ha. Nal Sarovar, one of the largest lakes of the country in Viramgam taluka (North Gujarat) is a treasure trove of waterfowl and aquatic plants. The lake is the life-supporting system for a large number of local people. Some lakes like Chandola and Goblej near Ahmedabad supported high waterfowl diversity in the past.

Marshes (with total area of 4956 ha) are mainly associated with other wetlands like ponds, lakes and Rivers. However, there are few large marshes like one near Sitapur and Nayakpura villages in Viramgam taluka.

Though there are a number of rivers and streams in the state, a large proportion of it retains water for the brief period of a year. During the brief period from post-monsoon to winter, these water-courses provide resting/roosting and/or feeding sites to the waterbirds like ducks, waders, herons, egrets, cranes, terns etc. Major rivers like the Nrmada and the Tapti play important role in nurturing the biodiversity and people of central/southern Gujarat throughout the year. 5 medium, 25 minor and 5 desert rivers also maintain biodiversity in the state.

Water spread area drastically reduces in summer in Inland wetlands of Gujarat, unlike the good rainfall areas of the country. The reduction in the extent of water spread area and aquatic vegetation adversely affect the habitat of avifauna, fishes and other aquatic fauna during the summer. During the post-monsoon season, water-spread is 2015 sq. km, which gets reduced to only 763 sq. km during summer or the pre-monsoon season in case of inland wetlands.

As a concluding remark, it may be stated that waterfowl and man are the most visible components of the biodiversity, which the inland wetlands of Gujarat support. In actuality, these wetlands support one or the other life requisites of great array of plants, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians and mammals.