The Manipur government’s plan to set up a bird sanctuary at the Loktak lake in Bishnupur district has met with stiff opposition from the villagers in nearby areas.
A large number of residents of Thingnunggei village took out a massive procession against the government’s proposal on Sunday.
“The villagers of Thingnunggei are poor and they have no other means of earning a livelihood except for catching fish and plucking vegetables from the lake. If fishing is banned in the lake, the villagers would starve. We are all for protection of birds, most of whom are migratory, but the new scheme should not be implemented at the cost of the poor villagers,” said one of the protesters.
Declining number
Thousands of migratory birds flock to the Loktak lake, the largest freshwater lake in north-eastern India, every year. However, in the past few years there has been a sharp decline in the number of migratory birds coming to the lake.
Reports indicate that bird poachers are active in the area, targeting the winged guests. Officials of the forest department's wildlife wing say in view of the widespread bird poaching at the lake, setting up of the sanctuary is a must.
Birdwatchers on the other hand blame human intrusion, bird poaching and hydroelectric power project near the lake for the decline in the number of migratory birds and brow-antlered deer in the Keibul Lamjao national park in the vicinity.
Brow-antlered deer
Some decades ago, the villagers of the lake islets had agitated against setting up of the Keibul Lamjao National Park, the natural habitat of the endangered brow-antlered deer.
They wanted the land demarcated for the park to be made available to them for cultivating paddy.
Now, several years later, the latest census suggests that there are only 260 brow-antlered deer in the Keibul Lamjao national park.