The Drifters

But L. Chauba, 46, knows no other way of living and has no other ambition in life. He has lived on this water idyll for as long as he can remember. His wife and four children stay with him and help him fish. But it gets less idyllic by the day.

The phumdis are heterogenous masses of soil, vegetation and organic matter in various stages of decomposition. They float on the lake, with about one-fifth of the surface above water, and four-fifth under. Local fishermen improvise on these naturally formed floating islands by securing them with ropes, bamboos and nylon nets, and make them into dwelling units.

There are at least 700 families living permanently on small phumdis on the Loktak, which, at 230 sq km, is the largest freshwater lake in northeast India. L. Ibomcha’s family is one such. He makes fishing nets and lives off the bounty of the lake. He has been doing it for the last 25 years. "I inherited the profession from my father who used to stay on the mainland and fish in Loktak. But with increasing competition and decreasing fish output from the lake, I had no choice but to shift inside the lake and stay here," says Ibomcha, sitting under a thatched structure, flies and insects buzzing all around him. Many others, like Ibomcha, have had to make that hard choice.

L. Amurea, for example, Ibomcha’s neighbour. She and her three children, aged between three months and seven years, stay in a hut that is barely 10 ft by 10 ft. Her husband is out fishing all day. The family cooks, eats, sleeps and dries fish on a small patch of the floating land. And the illusion of a land they jointly own does not come for free. Ibomcha and Khelen, Amurea’s husband, have paid Rs 2,500 to the previous owner to set up their households on the phumdi.

Fishing is the only part that is easy in phumdi life. Everything else is hard to come by. Drinking water, for instance. "We boil the lake water and drink it," says Amurea. "People often fall sick, they get diarrhoea and dysentery." Children also suffer from various infections since they live surrounded by water that is getting increasingly polluted by human excreta. The phumdis have no sanitation or drainage system. The islanders have no choice but to take a small canoe away from their own phumdi and use the vast water body as an open-air toilet.

There is no medical help at hand either. Phumdi dwellers dread anyone falling sick at night. "There is no way we can manoeuvre the canoes at night, so we have to wait till daybreak to take a patient to the mainland," says Thambal Devi. At one time, the lake used to have large clear stretches of open water. It has been besieged by unchecked growth on the phumdis in the past five hears. Motor boats can’t ply as the thick underwater vegetation blocks the engine propellers.

Schools are unheard of on the islands. Says Chaubi, who stays with her three children next to Amurea: "We live here through the year, the schools are all on the mainland.So we’ve been forced to keep our elder child on the mainland with our relatives." Not everyone has that back-up. Says Rajen’s father Kerani: "My wife has to stay on the mainland to look after our kids and their education. I stay here and Rajen joins me whenever possible."

The lost kingdom: unchecked growth threatens the Loktak

As conservationists point out, the fishermen catch about 1,250 tonnes of fish from the lake annually. The sustainable yield, according to officials at the Loktak Development Authority (LDA), would be only 1,102 tonnes per year. Conservationists also warn of more people from distant places moving to the lake to eke out a living. Reasons: rising population, increasing unemployment, and the flooding of agricultural fields after the construction of a barrage at Ithai under the Loktak Hydel project.

The issues are many, but the phumdi life may still survive. The LDA, an autonomous society formed by the Manipur government and funded in part by the India-Canada Environment Facility (ICEF), has started a project that integrates social, economic and ecological dimensions. Working closely with Wetlands International South Asia (WISA), it aims to enhance the lake’s resources that should lead to sustainable socio-economic development for Loktak’s islanders.

Old-timers feel the lake can continue to be a source of sustenance. Thoiba, a wizened old fisherman, says: "The phumdis not only provide base for shelter, they are also a source of food, vegetable, sand, fodder. Many plants found here have medicinal properties and are used by the community as local remedies. The material can be used for raising low-lying areas, as manure, as bundling material for construction of fishponds."

Thoiba remains optimistic. He says the solution is to go back to the old ways when local communities used to manage the phumdis. Those days, a common schedule would be worked out every year where everyone helped in deepening channels leading out of the Loktak to freshwater streams and such like. They would send islands that were over-decomposed down through the Khordak channel. This had to be stopped with the construction of the Ithai barrage. "Movement has been restricted, the boatways remain choked. The decaying phumdis make the water unhygienic. If we can open the barrage periodically, all these problems will be resolved," he points out.

The wisdom of those who have spent their lives on the phumdis should be taken seriously. Or Loktak, a goddess for Manipuris, may one day get angry. For she would want her children, the phumdi people, to live with dignity.