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EveryFish

River or lake, India

Loktak Lake

North-East India's largest freshwater lake, with floating islands called phumdis and a fishery hit by the Ithai barrage.

Loktak, in Manipur, is the largest freshwater lake in North-East India, known for its phumdis, floating mats of vegetation and soil on which fishers build huts. The lake drains into the Chindwin and Irrawaddy system of Myanmar, and its native fish once moved freely between the lake and those rivers. It is a Ramsar site and holds Keibul Lamjao, the world's only floating national park.

Fishing on the phumdis

Thousands of fishers live on and around the lake, and many build circular fish enclosures, called athaphums, from phumdi material to trap fish. Fish is central to Manipuri food, eaten fresh, dried and fermented as ngari. Carps, snakeheads, climbing perch and catfish are the main catch, along with introduced Chinese carps.

The Ithai barrage

In 1983 the Ithai barrage was built to hold water in the lake for the Loktak hydropower project. It kept water levels high all year and blocked fish moving up from the Chindwin. The pengba, a carp that is Manipur's state fish, is reported to have disappeared from the wild in the state, and other native fish declined. The phumdis also thickened and spread. Hatcheries now breed pengba for ponds.

Still to be written: Osteobrama belangeri, Channa striata, Anabas testudineus.

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