Water Quality and Socio-economic Studies of the Pumdi Environment of Keibul Lamjao National Park, Loktak Lake, Manipur, India

Abstract

Loktak Lake is the largest fresh water Lake in the North-eastern India. Keibul Lamjao National Park (KLNP) is a floating-mat (Phumdi) park inside the Lake. Study deals with the inter-related approaches: micobiological study, free-listing, participant observation and preference ranking of the six study sites of KLNP. Generally, plant collection per day was about 600 kg of Hedychium coronarium J. Koenig which were extracted from the park and found to be the most preferable species; while Persicaria sagittata (L.) H. Gross, as the least among the selected plants. Microbiological analysis of water for the six study sites recorded high pollution as evidenced by high values of Standard Plate Count (SPC) for bacteria ranging from 73,500-96,500 and microbial analysis of MPN (Most Probable Number) of coliform bacteria varies between100 and 320/100 ml and faecal coliform 95 and 200/100 ml. Free CO2 concentrations varied at the surface from 2-60 mg/l and 6-70 mg/l at the bottom of the park. In the KLNP environment the higher CO2 and lower concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO) might be due to the floating mat (Phumdi) nature, in which light and exchange of gases does not occur as it does in the natural water bodies.