But the shifting properties of wetlands in Manipur valley starts working in full-swing. How Keishampat, (‘pat’ means ‘lake’) and ‘Nityaipat’, both very near the present Residency of His Excellency the Governor of Manipur, have become a land mass in the heart of the city is a history now. The Lamphelpat, another lake is being metamorphosed into a New Imphal. ‘Kharungpat’ once a big lake is now an agricultural land and "Sumusang" another wetland, in between ‘Yangoi Achouba’ (Nambul River) and ‘Yangoi Macha’ (Nambol River), situated at the mouth of the Loktak Lake is now turned into 'patta' lands under the statecraft, much to the rejoice of the people and the Government. Similar is the case of ‘Lousipat’, still a beautiful natural fresh-water lake but sucked to the bone by a pompous artificial drain, is now dead; ‘mustard seeds’ are sown on this huge ‘grave yard’. People are happy as if they are earning something new; the Government is still searching for such more areas for egging a few morsels of rice for its poor people.

But, the irony is that both the people and its governance do not remember one thing that something is done at the cost of something; there is nothing like profit. ‘Rice’ is done at the cost of lakes. Rice can be purchased from the market, but lakes can't be purchased. Alas, nobody can sense the smell of the snake under the carpet. Rainfall is as much as it has been so long. Manipur River is the only natural drainage line doing its work to the fullest capacity to drain the water to the Chindwin of Myanmar. The same water balance remains in the valley - no less, no more. The only difference is that accumulation of water is very quick due to slippery watersheds all around; the momentum gained is so powerful that the same tonnage of water can do more work of devastation in a very short period. Have we ever thought when mankind has converted these lakes into their granaries, where does the water go? It remains as it can't go out, so the quantum of wetland water is constant. Having natural capacity to form new wetlands with the basic urge to maintain its equilibrium, the same water forms new wetlands as its compensatory mechanism.

On the other side of the scale, Loktak lake, taking the advantage of the heavy "cubes" of the Hydro-electric project - is expanding; and as its new forms many wetlands are formed along its neighbors swallowing up more than 60,000 hectares of heritage paddy lands of the State. That is not enough, the ground water is also silently creeping underneath towards the human habitation, and starts functioning as a high initial base for flash floods in the mainland destroying properties worth crores of rupees every year in a strange way leave alone the question of biodiversity hazard to the environmentalists, as one among the silent and helpless observers.

Yes, one can take a mouthful of fresh air at the Hidam Pat at Saijang, where one can see the ‘daffodils’ of lotus flowers. This Pat (lake) can be saved in the face of the encroachers if the people and the Government agree to its survival. Some Pundits, I acknowledge with wonder, say that these are nothing but population problem and is inevitable. If this is the straight answer and things are as easy as it seems, then question arises as to where human wisdom has gone; where has the wisdom of Planning Commission and State Department who usually projects things in phased manner gone. If these problems are so inevitable, what is the necessity of governance and its efforts, infrastructures and all that?

Legend and history of Manipur tell us on many instances of community digging of rivers/cleaning up of drainage lines/cleaning lakes in a big way. The iron will of the rulers inspire the people to churn the ‘Khirad Sagar’ for survival and civilization. Why not we start digging these wetlands, the ‘viscera’ of which is nothing but a rich bio-mass - all can be planned in such a way that these "half-soil-half-bio-mass" earth materials are quarried as a huge "gold mine" and the raw quarries distributed to the farmers where farm lands require bio-mass in general, and the farmers on the North; East and North-West areas of the valley in particular to use them as their organic manure.

The quarrying scheme will definitely give a "Midas touch" to sustain Manipur civilization a few more centuries that also, the organic way, the most wanted chemical free crops can be produced out of these bio-mass-cum-soils for the global market. That way, the excess earth materials feeling up our lakes can be gobbled up by the global consumer in the form of vegetables and food grains, giving benefits both ways. There is nothing to be panicky. We have come at this size of the problem 'cube' through many centuries and millenniums of 'time'. We can rewind the same ‘time dimension’ by digging up all these dry lakes to contain water in its original eco-system. No hurry, things can be done with a long perspective of at least 100 years time from now onwards. That will give a bonus of 100 years life to the eco-system. Harness these shifting wetlands to slow down the speed of the "Continental shift’ of wetlands in Manipur.

(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)