Imphal, February 14 2009: Highlighting the rapid degradation of the ecosystem service of the Loktak Lake, the largest fresh water wetland in the entire North Eastern region, state Chief Minister, O Ibobi has insisted the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, Montek Singh Ahluwalia to approve the Short Term Action Plan (STAP) at the earliest.

STAP has been drafted by the M/s Wetland International South Asia (WISA) as consultant with a view to make the project called "Conservation and Management of Loktak and Associated Wetlands" which was approved by the Planning Commission of India in 2005 more comprehensive and multidisciplinary.

The project with an overall investment of Rs 494.72 crores over a period of five years and provided an amount of Rs 50 crores under Annual Plan, 2007-08 under the Special Plan Assistant (SPA).

In the subsequent year, the Planning Commission decided to the review the project to make it more comprehensive and multi-disciplinary.

WISA have since interacted with the stack holders and prepared a revised STAP which is to be implemented during the period January, 2009 to March, 2011 involves an outlay of Rs 424.13 crores but the revised STAP document is awaiting approval of the planning commission even though the Centre has release a SPA funds under Manipur State's Annual Plan, 2008-09 .

Highlighting the criticality of conservation of Loktak and Associated Wetlands, Chief Minister, O Ibobi Singh has written the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India, Montek Singh Ahluwalia to approve the STAP for the Loktak Lake and Associated Wetlands Conservation Project and released the amount of Rs 209.87 crores required during the period from January 2009 to March 2010 for expeditious implementation of the prestigious project, official source said today.

The Loktak Lake and associated Wetlands are essentially floodplain wetlands of Manipur River and provide critical support to ecological and economic security of the entire North East through provisioning of fisheries and other aquatic resources serves as habitat of several rare and endangered biodiversity and supports hydro power generation for the entire region, the chief minister in his intimation said while drawing the attention of the deputy chairman of PCI.

The values and functions of these wetlands are inextricably connected to the due to developmental activities within the entire Manipur River basin.

Unfortunately, the intimation stated due to sector-specific development planning in the past without considering the full range ecosystem services of these Wetlands, have led to the rapid degradation due to changes in hydrological regimes, phumdis (floating biomass) proliferation, siltation, pollution and conversion for alternative uses.

"The lost of water holding capacity, phumdis proliferation loss of fish migration, degradation of Keibul Lamjao National Park (KLNP), enhanced vulnerability and poverty of lake shore communities and unsustainable incentive systems are key management issues that need to be addressed for wetland restoration," Ibobi observed.

Loktak Lake, one of the largest freshwater wetlands in the northeastern India, is under severe pressure due to many reasons-the main being increased siltation from the degraded catchment area.

In the present study Nuclear Technique Lead-210 (210Pb) Technique has been applied to estimate soil erosion rates in the catchment of the lake.

The erosion rates of the various land uses in the catchment have determined for various land uses, which are; fallow land (1.86 t ha-1 y-1), paddy cultivation (1.69 t ha-1 y-1), mixed forest (1.59 t ha-1 y-1) and river bed (1.35 t ha-1 y-1).The results obtained from the unsupported 210Pb are compared with equivalent results based on the modified Morgan Morgan Finney model and the results are found satisfactory, according to official observation report.

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