Experts have expressed the need to focus on the specialties and importance of every wetland in Manipur which has a total wetlands area covering 2.85 per cent of the State’s geographical area as per National Wetland Atlas 2009, in order to conserve the wetlands in Manipur.
The sentiment of the experts was shared during a daylong consultative interaction on conservation of wetlands in Manipur held in Imphal under the aegis of State Directorate of Environment on Saturday.
The consultation meet aims at finding facts, importance and issues of 23 wetlands out of 119 wetlands in Manipur which were identified as important wetlands of the State by the Manipur Remote Sensing Application Centre.
The 23 wetlands include Loktak, the largest freshwater lake in northeast India.
More than a dozen scholars, wetland activists and teachers made presentations on their research and findings on different wetlands of the State during the interaction which was chaired by Dr Kh Shamungou, chairman of technical committee of Manipur State Wetlands Authority.
Four experts in diverse fields including Prof W Vishwanath, Prof N Deva, Prof P Kumar, Prof Th Binoy, all from Manipur University also shared their observations during the consultation meet.
In his remark, Prof W Vishwanath of Manipur University who is also a technical committee member of the State Wetlands Authority said, “We need to focus on the specialties and importance of every wetlands of the state in order to take up conservation activities.”
On the other hand, Director Y Nabachandra of State Environment Department also urged the wetland experts and activists take up the initiative to formulate a baseline data on state wetlands further conservation activities.
Earlier in his presentation, R K Birjit, a wetland activist who has done extensive research on water birds of wetlands, expressed concern over the various uncontrolled human activities in the Loktak which severely affects the biodiversity of the lake.
He urged the authorities to conduct an in-depth scientific study on increase of the water weed and other invasive grasses in the wetlands.