Endanger biodiversity
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: March 25, 2011 -

ENCOMPASSING MORE than 2 million km of tropical Asia, Indo-Burma is still revealing its biological treasures. Six large mammal species have been discovered in the last 12 years: the large-antlered muntjac, the Annamite muntjac, the grey-shanked douc, the Annamite striped rabbit, the leaf deer, and the saola.

This hotspot also holds remarkable endemism in freshwater turtle species, most of which are threatened with extinction, due to over-harvesting and extensive habitat loss.

Bird life in Indo-Burma is also incredibly diverse, holding almost 1,300 different bird species, including the threatened white-eared night-heron, the grey-crowned crocias, and the orange-necked partridge. The Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspots, which Manipur is part of, becomes one of the most threatened biodiversity hotspots due to the rate of resource exploitation and habitat loss.

Among the proximate causes for loss of biodiversity, the shrinkage of cultivable land and subsequent reclamation from the forests and wetland areas is also one which are leading to degradation of a number of endemic species, according to a study of the state environment and ecology wing.

Even though scientific and sustainable management of biodiversity resources of Manipur has become one of the prime issues in Manipur for the conservation of biodiversity, there is a wide gap pertaining to biodiversity management and conservation, between the concerned authorities and the public including the army, legislature etc., the environment and ecology wing has observed.

The state, though systematically underexplored, is immensely endowed with biological resources, with only about 5% of the natural habitats of the region estimated to be in relatively pristine condition and another 10-25% of the land in damaged but ecologically functional condition. It is a bio-reserve of international significance and its conservation and restoration would have a global impact.

Loss of wetland habitat due to erosion of catchment areas, siltation, eutrophication and encroachment for settlement and farming purposes directly affects the biodiversity of the wetlands. Loss of wetlands has is a major cause for the degradation of the biodiversity in the state, analyst of the environment and ecology wing of the Manipur government.

Manipur had a record of 155 lakes in the past but there are now only 13 lakes as indicated by data provided by remote sensing satellite images. The wing wondered whether the 13 existing lakes are really within the category of lakes as most of them are dry in the seasons other than the rainy season.

For being a lake, the depth of the water level should be at least 3 meters but even Loktak lake, the greatest fresh water lake in the north eastern region of the country, has hardly this depth.

Further, some of the lakes which are reported to still exist, like the Yaralpat and Lamphelpat (at Tangkham) in Imphal east, and another Lamphelpat in Imphal west, are drying in the winter season. If the present trend of deposition of sediments in the lakes continued unchecked, the Loktak, Ekop etc. lakes may also dry up in the winter season.

In Manipur, the various lakes besides the rivers form a major part of the wetlands. The lakes include the Loktak lake, Ikop, Waithou, Pumlen/Khoidum pat, Ushoipokpi pat, Loushipat, Utrapat, Sanapat, Tankha pat, Karam Pat, Lamphel pat, Zailad lake and Jaimeng lake.

Out of these lakes only Loktak Lake has been identified under National Lake Conservation Programme (NLCP) by the ministry of environment and forests, government of India.

Conservation of inland ecosystem with special reference to sustainable development if wetlands, its biodiversity and fishery management along with EIA is being taken up in the state. Under the programme, the authority is conducting identification of threats and their impacts on wetlands, development of baseline data on hydrology, limnology, silt load and siltation, ecology, socio-economic aspects, catchment area, flora and fauna in terms of endangered threatened, endemic, vulnerable etc. including macro ones.

The identification and demarcation of wetlands from legal as well as ecological point of view, treatment of degraded catchment of wetlands, prevention of pollution of water from the discharge of agricultural pesticides, insecticide, domestic wastes etc. are also being taken up.

The Indo-Burma hotspot which Manipur is also part of it encompasses 2,373,000 km² of tropical Asia east of the Ganges-Brahmaputra lowlands. Formerly including the Himalaya chain and the associated foothills in Nepal, Bhutan and India, the Indo-Burma hotspot has now been more narrowly redefined as the Indo-Chinese subregion. The hotspot contains the Lower Mekong catchment.

It begins in eastern Bangladesh and then extends across north-eastern India, south of the Bramaputra River, to encompass nearly all of Myanmar, part of southern and western Yunnan Province in China, all of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Cambodia and Vietnam, the vast majority of Thailand and a small part of Peninsular Malaysia.