Scions of a changing lake
The people of Loktak Lake in Manipur are nostalgic about the days when the king would lease out areas of the lake to individuals and communities. It was a system that replenished the lake and resolved all conflict, they say. Today the Loktak Development Authority is struggling with the comprehensive management of the lake, balancing human needs with the multiple values of the lake
From owners to 'occupiers'
Generations of families have lived and fished on the floating islands of vegetation on Loktak Lake called phumdis. Now, claiming that the 10,000 phumdi dwellers are polluting the lake, the Manipur government is evicting them. Where will they go? They know no other way of life
The trade-off between food security and 'development'
Most of Manipur’s population, especially people in the valley area, depend on the lake’s fish and vegetation resources for their nutrition and food security. The Loktak hydropower project has given them a few hours of electricity every day, and better roads. What is that trade-off worth, asks the third in our series on this common property resource in Manipur
'There's nothing you didn't get from Loktak'
You would never come back from Loktak Lake empty-handed in times past, people say. Manipur’s freshwater lake provided fish, fuel, fodder, thatching material, medicinal plants and raw material for handicrafts. Today, both fish and vegetation have dwindled, and with it an important source of livelihood and security for thousands of local residents
Ditty for a dying lake
The Loktak Hydropower Project commissioned in 1983 has damaged the ecology of the largest freshwater lake in the northeast, and altered the culture, agricultural and livelihood patterns of communities residing around Loktak. The first in this FES-Infochange Media Fellowship series on Loktak, looks at what this common property resource used to be and what it has become