Loktak ate everything

By Thingnam Anjulika Samom *

The power situation is better now, so are the roads; but today in Toubul, there are only a few families who do not buy rice from the market. For the dam worshippers and anti-dam lobbyists alike, there is food for thought in these words of 58-year old Thoudam Gyaneshor of Toubul village of Manipur in the northeastern periphery of the country bordering Myanmar.

Toubul, with a total population of around 4044 people as per 2001 census and located in Bishnupur district of the state and around 34 kilometres from the capital city of Imphal, is one of the worst casualties of the Loktak Hydropower Project and its constituent Ithai barrage. The project is under the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Ltd.

The 105 Megawatt capacity power project takes its water from the largest freshwater lake in northeast India, the Loktak Lake, which in reality comprises more than 20 smaller lakes with a fluctuating hydrological regime. The project required that the water level is maintained at a constant level of 768.9 m throughout the year to provide adequate supply for the hydro project. As a result, a huge agricultural as well as settlement area on the periphery of the lake was adversely affected.

A case filed by the Loktak Lake Affected Areas' Peoples' Action Committee at the Gauhati High Court, Imphal Bench, states that an estimated 80,000 ha of arable land was destroyed by water inundation and frequent flash floods through the year after the project was commissioned. Gyaneshor lost around three hectare of agricultural land to the Loktak after the commissioning of the project in 1983. It was the same for most families in Toubul. The loss couldn't be more marked as at one time, Toubul was known for its production of the taothabi, a variety of rice grown on wetlands.

Phumdis in Loktak lake Photo by: Thingom Premarani

"Once Toubul had no dearth of rice in our houses, but after the barrage came, almost every house is compelled to buy rice from the market for consumption," says Gyaneshor. Sixty-four year old Soraisam Kola used to feed her own family of nearly 20 people with the rice from her one and half hectares of agricultural land. "The produce was so good that even after we ate and sold some, there would be so much leftover from each season that some of the rice would eventually mould," she recalls. She now buys rice at 26 rupees a kilo.

Oar on her shoulders as she prepares to row down to the lake for her afternoon fishing trip on the Loktak, she says, "Loktak ate my fields, it ate my cows too now that the fields are no longer there ... Loktak ate everything." Gyaneshor used to harvest around 200 phoubot annually from his fields. Phoubot is local measurement amounting to around 50 kg. He would sell around half the harvest leaving the rest for his family's consumption. "I was not a rich man by rich man's standards, but I was not poor either. I had rice, there was fish from the lake and vegetables from the kitchen garden, there wasn't much I lacked," he said.

After losing his agricultural lands however he has been compelled to convert a part of his fields into a fish pond. But not without fear. The lake water often spills over into their ponds and the village during the monsoons, carrying off much of the fish in the flood water. But if the flood water spares him, he earns around 40,000-50,000 rupees annually. "It is my land and I have to put it to some use, no matter how much I gain or lose," he says.

His neighbour, 70-year old Keisham Brajamani, continue to pay revenue tax for his one-and-half hectare field which now lies "about two men's height" under water. "If we don't pay, it will become khaasland/wasteland, and be lost to us," he says. Behind his words is the hope that the water might dry up one of these days and he can sow paddy there once again.

Brajamani who used to harvest around 100 sacks of rice annually from his own fields, now farms one hectare of field on lease. He invests both manual labour and money, and gets around 30-40 phoubot of rice while the owner gets around 20 phoubot after each harvest. Both sides of more than half a kilometre stretch of the road leading from Toubul market to the Loktak banks is a glaring testimony of how the proponents of the Loktak hydropower project failed to take into account the effects of the project on the lake ecosystem, the people and wildlife whose lives are inextricably inter-connected with the lake. What used to stretches of paddy fields has now been converted to strips of fishponds framed by eucalyptus trees on one side and a huge sheet of vegetation-covered Loktak waters on the other.

Considered as the lifeline of the people of Manipur, Loktak plays an important role in the socio-economic and cultural life of the state. Around 12% of the total population of Manipur are directly dependent on the lake for their livelihood. A major part of the rest of the populations, especially those living in the valley area also depend on the fish and vegetation resources of the lake for their nutritional intake and economic security.

Overall 132 plant and 54 fish species have been identified from different parts of the lake. While the fish form a major part of the cuisine as well as socio-religious practices of the people, especially the majority Meitei community, the plants are usually utilized as vegetables, food, fodder, fuel, thatching, fencing material, medicines, raw material for handicrafts, and for religious and cultural purposes.

When the 105 Megawatt capacity Loktak hydropower project was first commissioned in 1983, it was with the hope that the project would rapidly usher in an era of industrial, commercial and agricultural development in the otherwise backward state. However, the moot question today is whether the disadvantages have outweighed the advantages of the project and its constituent Ithai barrage.

The Ithai barrage has blocked passage of the migratory fish from the Chindwin-Irrawaddy river system, leading to a decline in the fish species and stock in the lake. It has also blocked the natural flushing of loose phumdi or floating vegetation masses down the Manipur River to the sea, thereby encouraging the accelerated eutrophication in the lake. The changed hydrological regime and ecosystem too has affected the endangered brow-antlered deer locally known as Sangai (cervus eldi eldi) found only in the Keibul Lamjao National Park.

Phumdis in Loktak lake

One failure of the project has been that it has never been able to provide regular power supply even to the villages in the Loktak lake periphery. There are daily outages of around 16-18 hours a day in most parts of the state. Manipur gets only around 32.01 share of the power output from the project, while rest is sold by NHPC to Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Tripura. The multipurpose Loktak Power Station also provides for lift irrigation of over 23000 hectares of land in the Manipur valley.

On top of that the issues of compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement of the people and areas by the Loktak hydropower project are under cloud. State Forest and Environment minister Th Devendra Singh recently clarified in the Manipur Legislative Assembly session on July 15 last that the matter which was related to the omission of compensations, rehabilitation and resettlement during the time of MoU signed between the state government and the NHPC is being monitored in depth by the state government at present.

Inordinate delay in payment of compensation has added to ire of the people. There are still 22 cases pending at the Gauhati High Court, Imphal Bench registered by different farmers' society and committees. The Loktak Lake Affected Areas' Peoples' Action Committee which has around 6000 members too had filed a case for crops compensation at the Gauhati High Court, Imphal Bench in 1994. The petitioners are still awaiting payment even though government had ruled in their favour a few years back.

Meanwhile, thousands more are bound to be freshly affected by the state policies, the most significant of which is the recently passed Manipur Loktak Lake (Protection) Acts, 2006. The most important part of the Act is the division of the 236.21 sq. km of Loktak Lake into two zones - a core zone of 70.30 sq. km which is also a "No-Development Zone or Totally Protected Zone" and a buffer zone of the other areas of the lake excluding the core zone.

The most significant aspect of this division is the prohibition against building of any hut or house on phumdis inside the lake, plantation of athaphum and engaging in athapum-fishing in this core zone area. These clauses will adversely affect nearly 10,000 people living in phumdi huts as well as thousands others dependent on the lake resources.

According to Ningthoujam Rakhon, general secretary of the All Loktak Lake Floating Hut Dwellers Progressive Committee, the phumdi huts are essential even for those migrant fishermen who come to stay in the huts during the fishing season only. "There are high winds on Loktak, and squalls could develop suddenly. How can we fish on Loktak waters without having a hut nearby where we could take refuge? It would be the same as asking us to throw ourselves into the lake to be killed," he adds.

Rakhon lives with his family on Champu Khangpok, a phumdi village on Loktak Lake populated by above 1500 people. "My great-great grandfather lived here, and even those before him. We have no agricultural land holdings or homestead on the mainland. Loktak is our lifeline," he said. Interestingly Champu Khangpok is on the 2001 census list of the state. Besides, many among the residents of the floating huts are said to be on the electoral list.

Another aspect of the Act is that only athaphums are the only phumdi formations recognized for compensation by the LDA and state authorities. In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister Okram Ibobi in January this year the All Loktak United Phumdao Koitha Owners Welfare Association (ALUPKOWA) had requested that the phumdao - a phumdi formation of three acres to 20 acres in area - be left alone during the LDA's phumdi removal programme on the Loktak.

"There are around 250 households, amounting to more than 3000 people, dependent on phumdao. They feed their children, educate them, and earn money for their other expenses from the phumdao. If the government snatches away this lifeline, how will they live?" asks Heisnam Brojen, general secretary of ALUPKOWA. He further pointed out that since the phumdao are not anchored down with stones and keep floating, they serve as cleaning agents crushing the loose phumdi formation known as phumjoi in their paths. "The government should leave these beneficial phum alone and concentrate on removal of the phumjoi instead," he said.

But with Chief Minister Okram Ibobi reiterating in his Khongjom Day celebration speech on April 23 this year that there will be no tolerance from the state government's side on the removing the phumdis from the lake and eviction of hut dwellers, the Loktak Lake is heading towards witnessing a new cycle of dispossession, displacement and loss of livelihood.

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* Thingnam Anjulika Samom wrote this article for Hueiyen Lanpao (English Edition). This article was webcasted on August 12 2010.

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