Tangjeng village, the pioneer of wildlife conservation

Kh Hitler Singh *

Migratory birds find a safe haven at Tangjeng village :: Pix - TSE

Tangjeng Village is located in Thoubal District near Sugnu and in the Sugnu Assembly Segment of Manipur. The road distance from Imphal to Tangjeng is about 70 km. The village can be reached from Imphal in two major routes; viz (a) Imphal Sugnu via Kakching Khunou and (b) Imphal to Tangjeng via Moirang, Kumbi, Wangoo Town.

Tangjeng was in the news many times because it has one small wetland called Tangjeng Lamyai Pat or simply Tangjeng Pat in the centre of the village. The Co-ordinates of the small wetland is 24'19.198'' N and 93'51.546'' E. The wetland is the feeding & foraging ground for migratory water birds such as Rudy Shelduck(Nganu Thangong), Pintail(Nganu meitunga), Common teal (Surit) etc.

The people of Tangjeng village are protecting these water birds specially Nganu thangong as it is associated with a legend and a strong belief that any body who kill Nganu thangong shall met the fate of the Duck as Nganu thangong are strickly monogamous, if one of the pair is killed, the other duck shall not be paired for its life. Anybody who kill Nganu thangong are heavily fined by the village Club since a long time ago. Thus the waterbirds are now congregated in this small wetland and they are not much afraid of human presence even if we are as close as 30 to 40 metre.

Tangjeng village was declared as the State's First Biodiversity Heritage Sites alongwith Koubru Mountain in the function of International Biodiversity day observed on 22nd May 2010 at Manipur Zoological Garden, by the then Chairman, State Biodiversity Board, Shri D. S. Poonia IAS, Chief Secretary, Manipur. As a supporting staff to Dr. V. Ramakantha IFS the then Member Secretary, State Biodiversity Board, I was associated in the analysis of differrent sites for the State's Biodiversity Heritage Sites.

Because of the long positive conservation ethics of people of Tangjeng and presence of Rudy shelduck (Nganu thangong) which is not spotted at the main Loktak Lake and other wetlands of Manipur at that time; made us to conclude that Tangjeng should be one of the State's Biodiversity Heritage Sites. After some time Shri R.K. Srivastava IFS took over the charge of Member Secretary, State Biodiversity Board as Dr. V. Ramankantha had gone on Central deputation. I was still involved in prepation of the development plan for the just declared two Biological Heritage Sites. With the limited earmaked fund we have prepared plan for Two Wachtowers, Desiltation of part of the lake bottom, Awareness programme and Signboard for Tangjeng Pat.

The selection of Tangjeng as Biodiversity Heritage Site had many criticisms at that time from many wildlife activists, environmentalists etc. The criticism are (a) the area is too small (b) the species diversity both flora & fauna is negligible etc. But we have outweighed these negative points with the positive point that the people of Tangjeng are fully awared of the value of wildlife conservation, so they must be rewarded with the declaration of Tangjeng as Biodiversity Heritage Site of Manipur.

Tangjeng was one of the most important bird congregation site selected for bird study including bird migration as well by the Wildlife Wing, Forest Department, Manipur in collaboration with Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai. Bird migration study was carried out by a team led by Dr. S. Balachandran; Deputy Director, Bombay Natural History Society and his six member team.

The targeted species for migration study should be large enough to carry 10 gm satellite transmitters. The choice of species was restricted to Pintail (Nganu meitunga) and Rudy Shelduck (Nganu thangong). But again chance of capture had made us to select Rudy shelduck and Rudy shelducks are easily spotted at Tangajeng Pat from around 9 AM to 4 PM everyday from the last week of October till the first week of March next year.

Thus Tangjeng village is in the history again of being the first station for satellite tracking of migratory water birds in the entire North East India.

My last visit with Dr. Khangenbam Samungou and Shri K. Jugeshwor to the Tangjeng pat was on 18th February 2014. We are reported about the presence of Common shelduck (Nganu thangong arangba). This species had stopped visiting Manipur for almost ten years. We are amazed to see the Tangjeng wetland which was very small in our earlier visit. Besides the habitat improvement work taken up by the State Biodiversity Board; the villagers led by the Pradhan of Pangaltabi Gram Panchayat Shri Ningthoujam Nando Singh had carried out large scale Desiltation work of Pat/wetland area.

The work had made a synergetic effect and attracted different species of water birds and some other shore birds. The Pat/wetland was much enlarged by the work of the local Pradhan. We also feel very happy that many aquatic plants have come up within a very short time. The wetland has attracted much more number of water birds and species diversity had been highly increased because of the large scale habitat improvement work and high level of Protection.

The census figure of Tangjeng Pat for 2011 & 2014 are (a) 12 Birds Species & 261 nos of birds and (b) 17 Birds species & 408 nos of birds respectively. (Source: Forest Department Birds Census Report). We believe that more bird species and more number of birds shall be spotted here in the coming years.

Thus Tangjeng Village is the pioneer village in protection of wildlife in Manipur Valley. The site will soon become a wildlife tourist destination in the State. Lastly, I salute the people of Tangjeng for having compassion and love of Wildlife from long time back. May the Lord bless and prosper Tangjeng!