Loktak homestays ban: What ails the largest freshwater lake in northeast
Oinam Maipakchao Singh, a resident of Thanga, an island village on Manipur’s Loktak lake built a homestay near his home in 2013, hoping that the lake’s uniqueness and the sheer number of bird species would attract tourists. Fishing, after all, was becoming less lucrative. He was the first of many. N Ranjan, and O Rameshwar, also from fishing families of Thanga, built their own floating homestays in 2018 and 2022 respectively, investing their money, even borrowing from relatives. From 2013, when Singh built the first homestay to the present day, there are now 40 homestays on the lake as claimed by the authority, earning locals a steady revenue.
Loktak, which means where streams meet or end, is the largest fresh water lake in north-east. The oval-shaped water body is designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, 1990, and is located about 40 km south of Imphal. The lake is recognized as an “Important Bird Area” site considering the wide diversity of migratory and local resident avifauna and waterfowl population, with some species arriving here for their winter stay from as far as Europe and China. The Keibul Lamjao National Park, in the southern part of the lake, is the only floating national park in the country, and home to the endangered Manipur Brow Antlered Deer, locally called Sangai.
The future of the lake is now under fresh scrutiny after the Loktak Development Authority, in an order on July 18, gave locals 15 days to remove their homestays, huts and athaphum (circular fish culture pond), failing which they would be dismantled. It’s motive, according to the notice, was to protect the lake.
“In case any of the concerned failed to comply with the notices, the Loktak Development Authority shall take necessary action for removal of such unauthorised activities without further notice to save the lake from further deterioration,” said the notice issued by LDA director, L Bhagaton Singh.
But with Loktak now boasting 40 homestays, and at least a thousand floating homes, locals are up in arms. “If homestays are demolished, we’ll be losing our source of livelihood as we’ve no other option here,” said Ranjan.
Like most others, Singh says the LDA order is shortsighted, and ignores indigenous knowledge about the ecology of the lake. Singh refers to the lake as a mother; the source of all life. “Can someone kill his mother to survive?”
The history of the lake
Folklore has it that it was on Loktak’s shores that the beloved Meitei princess Thoibi and fell in love with Khamba and their timeless romance came to life. Poubi Lai, a mythical creature integral to the Meitei (the dominant local tribe) belief system, is believed to reside in the heart of the lake. For Manipuris, the lake is Loktak Lairembi (Goddess Loktak), and for the thousands of fishermen who depend on her for their livelihood, she is ema (mother). Moirang town, on its banks, was the headquarters of the Indian National Army where they established a provisional independent government after defeating the British, according to local historians.
Before 1908, the unique lake was a mesh of about 20-odd wetlands separated by solid mass, which merged with each other during the monsoon and separated during drier periods. As years passed, the mass between the wetlands reduced and the lake got helmed by phumdi, a floating assortment of soil, vegetation and organic matter at various stages of decay. The phumdi clumped together to form islands that move around freely on the lake, their shape and size morphing through the year.
Meitei fishermen, who have inhabited the region for centuries, build their houses (phumsang) on top of phumdi and carve out the athaphum by cutting the phumdi into rectangular strips, tying them together and arranging them in a circle. After divers anchor it with heavy rocks, a huge net is cast within the athaphum, and left for anywhere between 15 days to two months. Fish in the athaphum are fed rice and the husk of grains. The entire community comes together on the day of the catch, which can be a day-long festival.
Like any living organism, the phumdis’ life cycle is regulated by the seasonal fluctuations in water levels.
The Meitei fishermen get rid of the dying biomass by burning the phumdi in heaps, and during rains, they cut up phumdi strips, ensuring that the lake stays in good health and is conducive for fish to spawn.
Ecological threat
According to a paper by Observer Research Foundation, in 2002, about 385 sq kms of Loktak basin was found to be covered with waterbodies, locally called pats, and the most important of them was Loktak lake, spread over 287 sq kms. The lake is 26-km long and 13-km wide, with an average depth of 2.7 metres.
Loktak Lake has a centripetal drainage system. All the major channels in the basin drain into the lake, which is a sub-basin of the Manipur River basin, with a direct catchment area of 980 square km and an indirect catchment of 7,157 square km, according to the ORF paper. The flood plains of the Manipur River basin are fed by eight main rivers — the Imphal, Iril, Thoubal, Kongba, Heirok, Sekmai, Nambul and Khuga — and the lake by two main rivers, the Nambol and Nambul besides other feeder streams, according to the Manipur water resources department. The natural flow ensured cleansing of the lake system.
The primary reason for its decay, according to experts, is the Ithai Barrage commissioned in 1983 on the Manipur river basin, which controlled the outflow of water into the lake during dry seasons, altering the lake’s hydrology. Ithai Barrage impounds the Manipur River Basin just below the confluence of the Imphal River and the Tuitha River south of Loktak Lake, and is part of the Loktak hydroelectric project that supplies hydropower to the seven northeastern states, according to the Manipur government.
Over time, the dam has affected water flow into the lake and caused harm to its aquatic ecology. The fresh water flow was further reduced as the Heirok and Sekmai rivers were isolated from the lake through engineering interventions and diversions by the state government over the last two decades. While the water level in the lake before the barrage’s construction was around 3.1 metres during dry season, the post-barrage level fluctuations have reduced to about 1.4 metres, the ORF paper says. The barrage has also caused siltation of the lakebed. In 2017, the Manipur government urged the Centre to consider decommissioning of the barrage. The Centre is yet to decide on the plea, according to state government officials, considering the 750 MW plant provides power to several northeastern states.
Asnikumar Moirangthem, a senior Manipur BJP leader, who is from the Loktak neighbourhood and took charge as chairman of the LDA in April this year, wrote an article in May on the LDA’s website that the lake was “on the brink of fading into oblivion due to some shortsighted decisions taken 39 years ago” referring to the commissioning of the Ithai barrage on Manipur.
The basin provides valuable ecosystem services to the region, such as water, food, fodder, fuel, timber and other wetland products, as well as supporting many species of flora and fauna. But, its decay has been phenomenal in recent years. As a result, people living around the lake began to take up alternative means of livelihood including opening homestays.
The crackdown
On July 18, LDA director Singh ordered the removal of all the athaphum, huts or homes on the phumdis within the premises of Loktak Lake excluding Champu Khangpok in 15 days. The reason given in the order was that this was to rejuvenate the ecological condition of the Loktak Lake and delist it from the Montreux record, a register of wetland sites on the Ramsar list which need restoration. The order also said the “exponential rise” in the number of athaphums, houses (home stays) and huts have put the lake at risk, impacting the natural environment adversely.
There are around 40 floating homestays in Loktak according to records of the newly formed Loktak Floating Homestay Association (LFHA) Thanga. “LDA said there are around 40 floating homestays, which is not correct,” Oinam Maipakchao Singh, who heads LFHA, said at his residence at Thanga Ngaram, a foothill village at Loktak.
“So we’re requesting the authorities not to dismantle the existing structures. We’re also appealing to the authority to rethink the decision,” he said, adding that all floating homestays operators are educated, unemployed local youth who have been playing a key role in rejuvenating the lake’s ecosystem. He said they held talks with the LDA four times in the past year and would meet chief minister N Biren Singh soon. He added that model “dos and don’ts” for all homestay owners are already in place.
Stating the recent LDA notice as an attempt to violate the traditional rights of the community in the lake, N Raghu of secretary of Apunba Loktak Ngamee Sinmi Cooperative Society, a Loktak Lake fishing society, said, “We’re demanding revocation of the LDA notice by July 30. Otherwise, we’ll take up various forms of agitations.”
This is not the first time there has been a controversy. In 2011, using provisions of the Manipur Loktak Lake (Protection) Act, 2006, nearly 700-800 houses on phumdis were burnt down after their occupants refused to vacate them responding to a similar notice. Authorities don’t want a repeat of the same this time and believe that the unauthorised construction will be removed voluntarily.
“We have been suggesting that a regulation be made to control the existing fishing activities particularly the athaphum,” said Oinam Rajen Singh of the All Loktak Lake Areas Fishermen’s Union, Manipur. The fishing on the lake occurs for five to six months, though the Manipur government does not maintain data on the fish production from the lake.
LDA chairman M Asnikumar and Project Director L Bhagaton Singh were not available for comment. When called, Singh asked this reporter to call after 15 days, a time by which the demolition, as per the notice,would have taken place. “Please call me after 10-15 days to talk on this subject,” Singh said.
Environmentalist Ramananda Wangkheirakpam of the Imphalbased Indigenous Perspectives said the LDA did not have a comprehensive plan to address the issues of Loktak Lake as they lacked experts on board. “A systematic and comprehensive approach is required to save the lake instead of initiating urgent steps by issuing such a notice.”