Place · floating-island lake · India
Loktak Lake
The 300-square-kilometre freshwater lake in Bishnupur district, Manipur, 48 kilometres from Imphal — the largest freshwater lake in northeastern India and the only floating lake in the world with its characteristic phumdi (floating islands of decomposed vegetation and soil). The 236-sq-km Keibul Lamjao National Park on the southern phumdi is the only floating national park in the world and is home to the endemic sangai (brow-antlered deer, Rucervus eldii eldii, only 230-250 individuals left — the smallest population of any large mammal subspecies). The 1983 Loktak Hydroelectric Project dam has disrupted the lake's natural water-level cycle, threatening the phumdi ecology. The Manipuri fishing community of about 100,000 depends on Loktak for livelihood. Ramsar Wetland since 1990.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 24.550, 93.780
Connections (2)
- Site adjacencyManipura / Manipur
Manipura kingdom and Loktak Lake are connected through the geography of the Manipur Valley. Loktak lies south of Imphal and has long been embedded in the region’s ecological and cultural landscape. The lake and surrounding wetlands formed an important part of the natural environment within which the Manipur kingdom developed.
- Site adjacencyMoirang
Loktak's phumdi and Moirang's Lai Haraoba belong to the same Meitei landscape: the lake is in the Khamba-Thoibi cycle that Moirang is the setting of, and the floating mats have been fished and lived on for centuries. The Ithai barrage, built for hydroelectricity, has changed the water regime the phumdi and the fishing both depend on.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Loktak Lake”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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