By N Kalyani
The Sangai is a unique and rare deer found in one place in the world — in the state of Manipur; in its wetland habitat, the Loktak pat, in the Loktak lake. An approximately 300 sq km waterbody, the lake is the largest fresh water source of the North East that was declared, in 1990, as a Ramsar Site, a wetland of international importance.
Imphal-based Thoudam Brajabidhu Singh captures the endangered Sangai, the Manipur brow-antlered deer, in the wild, in his documentary titled Sangai: A Vanishing Deer of Loktak. The director has to his credit more than 80 tele-plays and documentary films, and has won numerous accolades and awards.
The 23-minute film showcases Manipur’s picturesque landscape and vegetation and also portrays the cultural, social and economic aspects of the Manipuris that is yoked to the Loktak. The Loktak lake, 40 km away from Manipur’s capital city of Imphal, is fed directly or indirectly by about 45 rivers and streams that emanate from the nine hill ranges that surround Manipur, making it a perennial water body.
On the lake is the world’s only floating park, the Keibul Lamjao National Park, a 40 sq km oval shaped park that is the only natural habit of the Sangai deer, the Cervus eldi eldi. A fully-grown dark brown male Sangai has a crown of arc shaped antlers. Antlers are annually shed during June-July and within 20 to 30 days they start growing back and attain their full size in about six months. Antlers are absent in the female. The Sangai has a peculiar habit — of breaking its run to turn and wait for any onlooker. In Manipuri, Sangai translates to sa meaning animal and ngai meaning waiting for you.
While some hillocks and a strip of lowland are the only hard ground inside the park, providing rest and shelter to the deer, especially during heavy rains and floods. The phumdis make up the rest of the park. The film explains the formation of these phumdis that are thick floating carpets of plants and vegetation. The phumdis support a rich biodiversity and also govern water quality.
Formed initially by the accumulation of loose soil and decaying vegetation, they are gradually covered by layers of dense growth of certain plants like the kangkup and kabokung. Tall reeds and grasses expand and thicken the phumdis.
The floating phumdis are highly buoyant, with about a fifth of it above water level, and the Sangai have a unique way of running to avoid sinking into the quagmire.
The Keibul Lamjao National Park is made up of the grasses on the floating phumdis. Some 150 species of aquatic and semi-aquatic reeds and grasses grow copiously in the park forming a grassland ecosystem that provides shelter to the deer. Plants like the Learsia hexandra, Carex cruciata, Zizania latifolia and Panicus humidorum make up the Sangai’s favourite food plants.
The state animal of Manipur, the Sangai deer is looked up with awe, and it is an irony that the Keibul Lamjao, the deer’s only natural habitat, is under jeopardy posing therefore a threat to its existence. Due to deforestation and jhum cultivation (shifting cultivation) in the catchment areas there is large scale soil erosion. The resultant prolific growth and floating of phumdis has resulted in loss of the lake’s ecological equilibrium.
L Muhindro Singh, Manipur’s deputy conservator of forests, park and sanctuary, points out that the park gradually degraded due to the commissioning and functioning of the Loktak Hydroelectric project. The former seasonal cycle of sinking and floating of phumdis has been disturbed. The phumdis would be at the bed of the lake during the dry season drawing nutrients from the earth and float during the rainy season. With enhanced nutrients, the plants, which included the Sangai’s food plants, would grow luxuriantly. But now the phumdis float all year round. Besides, weed infestation and enormous inflow of wastes and plastic from across the city of Imphal is resulting in heavy pollution of the once-pristine lake.
The film also explains that human habitation has been growing steadily and today the National Park is surrounded by densely populated villages, with around three lakh inhabitants directly dependent on the wetland resources for their life and livelihood. For instance, the lake and the park provide some 1400 metric tonnes of fish annually.
According to AK Rana, the additional principal chief conservator of forests of Manipur, steps are being taken in order to reduce the biotic pressures on the park. For example, promoting planting of those plants that are of use as fodder and which provide other benefits to the local populace has weaned people away from using up the park resources.
The deer are also exposed to poaching and in the last estimate, in 2003, the number of deer in the park was about 180. Ofcourse, the numbers reflected a growing population since their double digit figure of 18 in 1977.
The Sangai being restricted to the park, Muhindro Singh also explains that there is large scale inbreeding, and “if an epidemic occurs the whole population may be wiped out. So an alternate home for the Sangai is called for.”
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