The Keibul Lamjao National Park (Meitei: Keibul Lamjao Leipakki Lampak) is a national park in the Bishnupur district of the state of Manipur in Northeast India. It is 40 km2 (15.4 sq mi) in area, the only floating national park in the world, and an integral part of Loktak Lake.[1][2] It is currently under the tentative lists of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, under the title "Keibul Lamjao Conservation Area (KLCA)", additionally covering the buffer of Loktak Lake (140 sq km) and Pumlen Pat (43 sq. km).[3][4]
The national park is characterized by floating decomposed plant material locally called phumdi. It was created in 1966 as a wildlife sanctuary to preserve the natural habitat of the endangered Eld's deer (Cervus eldi eldi). In 1977, it was gazetted as national park.[5][6]
The brow-antlered deer, which was first discovered in Manipur in 1839 and named Cervus eldi eldi in 1844 in honour of Lt. Percy Eld – a British officer, was reported an extinct species in 1951. It was re–discovered in the Keibul Lamjao Park area by the environmentalist and photographer E.P. Gee, which necessitated declaring this reserve park area as a national park to protect and conserve the deer now called Eld's deer's subspecies brow-antlered deer (Cervus eldi eldi) or Sangai in Meitei language (to distinguish it from the other two subspecies found in Burma and Thailand that are called Cervus eldii thamin and Cervus eldii siamensis and also in Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan Island). It has a pride of place in the folklore and culture of the Manipur state and is the state animal of Manipur. From a small herd of 14 deer in 1975, its population was reportedly 155 in 1995 and as per the latest wildlife census conducted in March 2016 its number rose to 260.[7]
The park is a swamp with floating mass of vegetation created by accrual of organic detritus and biomass with soil particles that has been thickened into a solid form called phumdis, at the south–eastern side of the Loktak Lake, which has been declared a Ramsar site. Two thirds to three fourths of the total park area is formed by phumdis.[8] A waterway through the park provides year-round access by boats plying through the Loktak Lake, to the Pabot Hill in the north. The reserve area of the park which was 4,000 ha (9,884.2 acres) in March 1997 was reduced to 2,160 ha (5,337.5 acres) in April 1998, under pressure from the local villagers. The swamp encompasses three hills, namely, Pabot, Toya and Chingjao that provide a refuge for the large mammals during the monsoon season. The distinctive nature of the park is that it is "too deep to be marsh, too shallow to be a lake".[9]
While the area on the periphery of the park is privately owned, the park itself is predominantly state-owned.[9]
Hydro–meteorological feature of the area is marked by the dominance of the Indian tropical monsoon with an average annual rainfall of 1,183 mm (46.6 in) with July and August as the wettest months and February and March as the driest.
The size of the park varies with the seasons as it is formed of phumdis (morass of organic matter). The peripheral areas of the lake are grounded to the bed of the lake during the dry season but get almost substantially submerged for a few days during the monsoon season. It emerges and floats to the surface fully a few days later, separating from the ground; the depth of the Phumdi varies from 1 ft (0.3 m) to 4 ft (1.2 m) and during this period the animals in the park move to higher hilly areas. About twenty percent of its thickness floats on the lake, above the surface, which supports the weight of large mammals.[9][10]
Temperatures vary from a maximum of 34.4 °C (93.9 °F) in summer to a minimum of 1.7 °C (35.1 °F) in winter. Humidity was a recorded high of 81% in August with a minimum of 49% in March.[citation needed]
The park, primarily composed of moist semi–evergreen forests, has a rich amalgam of aquatic, wetland and terrestrial ecosystem.[5] The grass land structure of the park is divided into three zones.[11]
Aquatic flora recorded in the park include Zizania latifolia (wild rice, ishing kambong), Tripidium bengalense, Eiranthus procerus (singnang), Dioscorea bulbifera (phumha), Cynodon dactylon (tinthou), Alpinia galanga (pullei), Eichhornia crassipes (kabokang), Hedychium coronarium (loklei), Nelumbo nucifera (thambal) and Phragmites karka (tou).[5][8]
Some of the above-listed flora had been recorded in two types of phumdis namely, the phumdi ataoba (floating) and the phumdi aruppa (sinking); reeds, grasses, and other plants growing on a mat of dead and decaying vegetation floating on the lake surface form the ataoba, while Phumdi aruppa has mats of vegetation which have sunk to the bottom of the lake and support a rich emergent growth of reeds and grasses. In a 1960 estimate, the phumdi vegetation had been structured into 45% Phragmites karka, 25% Erianthus ravennae (elephant grass), 15% Saccharum munja, 5% S. latifolium, 5% Alpinia allughas and 2% Saccharum procerum and 3% other species, including Zizania latifolia; Zizania latifolia is the plant much relished by the sangai deer. Eichhornia crassipes was a recent species in the open water areas of the swamp in the midst of Polygonum (buckwheat) and Trapa (water caltrop or water chestnut). The three hills surrounding the park are now denuded of most of the vegetation.
Apart from the brow-antlered deer (Cervus eldi eldi), the flagship species of the park, other fauna found in the park were the following:[5][8][9]
Prominent bird species recorded in the park are both migratory and resident. Some of them are the East Himalayan pied kingfisher, black kite, lesser sky-lark, northern hill myna, Indian pied myna, North Indian black drongos, lesser eastern jungle crow, yellow headed wagtail, spotbill duck, blue-winged teal, ruddy shell duck, threatened hooded crane, Burmese sarus sarus crane, Indian white-breasted waterhen and crimson-breasted pied woodpecker.[5][8]
Some of the identified threats to the park are elaborated below.[8]
Conservation measures suggested relate to development and implementation of a management plan giving priority to long term conservation, monitoring the condition of habitat and to take timely corrective measures by enforcing strict protection of core areas, particularly with reference to the water level due to the Loktak Hydro Electric Power Project.
Some of the measures suggested and under implementation are elaborated as
Conservation measures implemented The measures that have been implemented by the Forest Department of the Manipur Government are the following.
The park is approachable by road, rail and air through Imphal, the capital of Manipur. By road it is 53 km (32.9 mi) from Imphal and 522 km (324.4 mi) from Guwahati (Assam) on the National Highway No. 53. Public and private transport ply on these roads.
The nearest rail head is at Jiribam is a railhead on the Manipur border, which is 225 km (139.8 mi) from Imphal.[citation needed]. And Rani Gaidinliu station at Tamenglong is the nearest station which is 177 km (110.0 mi) from Imphal and 188 km (116.8 mi) from the national park.
Resorts under the Classic Hotel for family and travel-loving couple are available in the Sendra island park which is 5-6 kilometers away from the National Park. Basic accommodation of a forest rest house without boarding facilities is available at Phubala and Sendra islands inside the park and at Moirang town 10 km (6.2 mi) away from the park. Staying at Imphal which has better hotel facilities is a preferred option.
Visit to the park is ideal between 0600 and 1000 hrs in the morning and 1530 and 1800 hrs in the afternoon, when the sangai deer comes out to feed in herds. A boat trip along the labyrinthine boat routes passing through colourful water plants would be a good way to see the park. An adventurous trip would be to take a walk through the park but the phumdi is not a firm ground. Manipur Tourism Department arranges conducted day tours to the Loktak Lake and the Keibul Lamjao Park.[7]
Manipur is considered a sensitive border state. Earlier the Foreigners entering Manipur (including foreign citizens born in Manipur) was needed to possess a Restricted Area Permit, but now it has been lifted from the state. There is no permit required for foreigners coming to Manipur, they only need to register themselves in the established check points i.e. Imphal Airport and (Mao and Jiribam) for those coming by road.[citation needed]
The largest island is home to the Keibul Lamjao, the world's only floating national park. It serves as a habitat for the endangered brow-antlered sangai, or "dancing deer," whose hooves have adapted to the island's spongy ground. The park, covering 15 square miles (40 km2), was specifically created to preserve the deer, which were once thought to be extinct.