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Keibul Lamjao National Park :India February 18, 2006

The Keibul Lamjao National Park is the last natural refuge of the Manipur brow antlered deer (Cervus eldi eldi). It is situated in the southeastern region of the Loktak Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the North Eastern India. The floating national park is characterised by many floating decomposed plant materials locally called phoomdis. It is also the home of other endangered species including a species of Python, Python molurus. At present the park is threatened by construction of the Loktak Hydroelectric Project.

The entire Loktak Lake was protected and declared a sanctuary in October 1953, mainly to save the sangai or Brow Antlered Deer, which was threatened by extinction. Following the re-discovery of the deer, in July 1954, this area was officially notified as a sanctuary in 1966 and a decade later, on March 28, 1977, the Keibul Lamjao National Park was created.

Keibul Lamjao is famous not just because of the brow-antlered deer; its other claim to fame is the fact that this is one of the very few `floating’ protected areas in the world.Approximately 50 km from the state capital, Imphal, Keibul Lamjao lies on an island on the fringes of the Loktak Lake.

The best way to see Keibul Lamjao is by boat- and that too in the early morning or in the evening, when the lake’s at its loveliest. The sangai, which live in small herds, lie low through most of the day and come out to feed either around dawn or at dusk, which makes a circuit at this time even more satisfying for wildlife-watchers. Local boatmen acting as guides can be engaged to take you around the lake.

Keibul Lamjao consists of the unique ‘phumdi’ or floating marshes. Eighty per cent of the flora is submerged and the vegetation forms a 90-120 cm. thick cover on the water surface. About half a century ago, the predominant plants used to be tou (45 per cent), singut (25 per cent) and khoimom (15 per cent). But the composition of the vegetation has undergone rapid changes and the plant cover, at present, is estimated to comprise of equal proportions of hoop Leersia hexandra and sing kambong Zizania latifolia, a protein-rich plant, often used as food (about 24 per cent).


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