Loktak, the lake of disappointment
- Part 1 -

S Balakrishnan *

Loktak Lake - Largest Fresh Water Lake in North East India in May 2013 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

We were duped by the Manipur Tourism Department. With lot of imagination and expectation we drove to Loktak Lake straight from the Airport. Induced by the 'false information' of the Tourism Dept, my daughter was nagging to change our accommodation plan and opt for home stay in a traditional floating house on one of the floating islands! A fantastic experience it would be! Our dreams literally soared on seeing a picture of Loktak printed on the back of Air India's flight ticket.

From the air, the sight of green patches of vegetation on gleaming water surface added to our excitement; we craned our neck to see this scenery. I could have spawned a poem on that beautiful sight but, unfortunately, I had a feeling of nausea while touching down (You must thank God). But what a disillusionment! A passing glance of Loktak Lake as we proceeded towards the Sendra Resort was a plain, bleak one. Neither floating islands nor floating houses, not even one, but only a few floating boats. But then boats are supposed to be floating, no? Else they will be known as submarines, I suppose.

'The Lake was cleaned up a few years ago', our doubt was cleared by Mr Krishna, our guide. All the floating islands of vegetation along with the houses on them were removed in toto, he went on. The Lake was gasping for breath as it was getting chocked up with the ever-expanding and ever- multiplying vegetative islands; also, it was getting highly polluted by the floating house population and those living all around it, he explained as we were sadly watching the lake from the hanging balcony of Sendra Resort restaurant.

Were they not living there traditionally and would not their livelihood get affected? Anyhow, I am sure better brains must have broken their heads together to take this decisive action for saving the Lake. At the most they could have allowed one or two big floating islands with small families living on it – at least during the day time – for the sake of expectant tourists like us who took all the pain and trouble to travel from Chennai to see this unique lifestyle. Even life-size figures could have been put up on those model floating houses.

It was past noon when we arrived at Sendra Resort and the water sheet of the immense lake was shimmering like thousands of stars. Here and there a few lonely fishing boats with lonely fishers were lazily dancing up and down the surface. A peaceful sight and a perfect place to contemplate; you can either become a Buddha or a don. It all depends on your mindset.

When we finished our late lunch it was almost evening. Can we call it luffin (lunch+ tiffin), after 'brunch' which is a combination of late breakfast and early lunch? Our guide Krishna deserted us to fend for ourselves as he had to pick us up early the next morning. We daringly decided to explore the area on our own. First, let us take a boat ride in the Lake, we concluded and so came down from atop the 250 ft high Sendra hillock Island situated amidst the Loktak Lake. There were not many tourists at the boating club; so we hired a small outboard motorboat for ourselves.

For 30 rupees per head, it was a circular trip of about 20 minutes with close-up view of a few small floating aquatic islands. 'Could we land on them?' our adventurous daughter enquired, probably for a selfie titled 'Lady Columbus discovering an island' to be instantly uploaded on Whatsapp or Fb. 'No', sternly warned the captain of the boat. 'These are just smaller ones in the process of accumulating and developing; you will sink down. Have a closer look and you can see water patches in between', he explained. As we took a u-turn and proceeded back to the shoreline, we had a memorable sunset behind the hills. The water reflected deep orange as if someone had played Yaoshang (Holi) and sprayed the colour all over the surface.

Loktak, the largest fresh water lake in the North-East Region, is 48 kms from Imphal. It is also the largest lake covering 61% of the identified wetland regime in Manipur. Loktak is spread over an area of 230 sq km with a maximum length of 32 km and breadth of 13 km; its average depth is 2.5 m (more than 8 feet; depth is better understood in foot measure than in meter, at least as far as I am concerned). Islands occupy 2 sq km of the lake area. It has a direct catchment area of 1,064 sq km. The livelihood of about 1 lakh people living in and around Loktak depends on the lake. By tradition, the lake's water has been widely used for fisheries and agriculture.

The characteristic feature of Loktak and associated wetlands in Manipur is the presence of floating islands, locally called phumdi. They are a heterogeneous mass of soil, vegetation and organic matter at various stages of decomposition. They occur in all sizes and thickness, once occupying almost half of the lake area. Management of phumdi has been one of the focus areas during implementation of schemes for lake restoration.

Mechanical removal of phumdi was initiated in January 2010 by Loktak Development Authority (LDA), and 24.93 Lcum of phumdi has been removed by this method untill a few years back. A cost effective and eco-friendly method of managing phumdi is by manual flushing through Khordak and Ungamel channels down the Manipur River. LDA has successfully flushed 4.04 sq km of phumdi from Loktak. The removed phumdi are transported to disposal sites and composting yards. Desiltation activities in 14 inflowing streams of the Lake have also been undertaken. So far, about 2,500 community toilets have been constructed in identified villages around the Lake, covering 80% of the intended target.

As one from Tamil Nadu, I was happy to note that Karunya University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and another organization from New Delhi, were selected for external monitoring of the Lake in 2010.

A recent headache is the rapid spread of paragrass; it is a matter of concern for lake management primarily due to its proliferation rate. The species, which used to be one of the several constituents of the wetland, has now become dominant. Its spread and rapid growth in the marsh areas is gradually changing the vegetation pattern with impacts on overall biodiversity. Paragrass is a perennial grass species which can grow in terrestrial as well as aquatic environments. It has hairy stem and leaves.

The stem is up to 1-1.5 cm in diameter. The leaf can extend up to 75 cm at maturity. Vegetative propagation from the nodes makes its growth profuse which aids in invading new areas. The plant has been seen to grow beyond 2 meter and laterally to more than 5 meter, which is more than 15 ft., just imagine! In the terrestrial areas, it dominates other grasses and leads to a monotypic stands.

Paragrass was introduced in Manipur by the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Department (in consultation with National Seed Corporation of India, Guwahati) during 1972-1973 to support dairy development in the state. While paragrass poses a threat to the wetland, the communities have several beneficial uses and do not view it as a nuisance. Paragrass serves as a good feed for milch cattle as well for fish farming in the lakeshore and island villages.

As we landed from the boat, we saw the youth and not-so-youth having a gala time playing volleyball on the shore. A few others were seen jogging and walking, in an effort to keep trim & fit. Some had even come from across the Sendra Island, using the bridge as the jogging track. Somehow I could not help envying the pollution-free, joyous atmosphere. I took deep breaths to inhale as much of the fresh air as possible along with the happy ambience and tried to flush out my jealousy. By then it was 5.10 PM and the sun had completely set. A time difference of an hour or even more from Chennai, I noted.

With such a vast water body, it was natural to expect fish in abundance, more so when Manipuris are so fond of fish. I understand that even Manipuri Brahmins relish fish; it is not a taboo.

To be continued....