Guess the place: It’s home to the world’s only floating national park

Imagine a national park that does not sit firmly on land. Instead, it gently shifts with the water beneath it. A place where you can feel the ground seem to be spongy, where forests float, and where the deer appear to ‘dance’ as they move carefully across drifting vegetation.Welcome to Keibul Lamjao National Park, the world’s only floating national park.Located in the Bishnupur district of Manipur, the park spans around 40 sq km and forms an integral part of Loktak Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India. The lake itself has been designated a Ramsar site, recognising its international importance as a wetland ecosystem.

Why does it float?

The defining feature of Keibul Lamjao is its vast expanse of phumdis, thick, floating masses of decomposed vegetation, organic matter and soil.

These phumdis are formed by the accumulation of biomass and organic detritus over time. Two-thirds to three-fourths of the park’s area is made up of these floating formations.The park lies on the south-eastern side of Loktak Lake and has often been described as being “too deep to be a marsh, too shallow to be a lake.” A waterway running through the park provides year-round access by boats from Loktak Lake to Pabot Hill in the north.

The swampy reserve also includes three small hills, Pabot, Toya and Chingjao, which serve as refuges for large mammals during the monsoon season when water levels rise.

A sanctuary created to save a species

Keibul Lamjao was first declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1966 to protect the endangered Sangai, also known as the brow-antlered deer (Cervus eldi eldi). It was later gazetted as a national park in 1977.The Sangai, the state animal of Manipur, has deep cultural significance in local folklore.

First recorded in Manipur in 1839 and formally named in 1844 in honour of Lt. Percy Eld, the species was declared extinct in 1951. However, it was rediscovered in the Keibul Lamjao area by environmentalist and photographer E.P. Gee, prompting stronger conservation measures.From a small herd of just 14 deer in 1975, the population rose to 155 in 1995. According to the wildlife census conducted in March 2016, the number increased further to 260, a significant recovery made possible by focused conservation efforts.The Sangai is often called the “dancing deer” because of its delicate gait while walking across the floating phumdis. Its survival is closely tied to the health and thickness of these floating meadows. Read more: This Himalayan village has a 500-year-old preserved mummy; who does it belong to?

Ecological significance

The park’s ecosystem is highly sensitive. The formation and regeneration of phumdis depend on natural water-level cycles in Loktak Lake. Any disruption to hydrology can affect the stability of the floating biomass and the species that depend on it.Originally covering 4,000 hectares in March 1997, the reserve area was reduced to 2,160 hectares in April 1998 due to pressures from local habitation and land use.Keibul Lamjao is currently on UNESCO’s tentative list under the title “Keibul Lamjao Conservation Area (KLCA),” which also includes buffer zones covering parts of Loktak Lake and Pumlen Pat.Keibul Lamjao offers a glimpse of a rare wetland ecosystem that is found nowhere else in the world. A national park that floats, sustained by nature’s layered accumulation of plant life and organic matter. It’s indeed an interesting place to visit where land drifts, deer dance, and an entire ecosystem survives on water.