THREATS TO THE EXISTENCE OF BROW-ANTLERED DEER (Cervus eldi eldi) IN KEIBUL LAMJAO NATIONAL PARK, MANIPUR, INDIA

摘要

Keibul Lamjao National Park (24°27′-24°31′ N and 93°53′-93°55′ E) in Manipur State, India, is unique in being the only floating national park in the world. The park covers an area of 40 km~2 and occupies the southern part of Loktak Lake, which has an area of 289 km~2. It is an area of low-lying swamps comprising floating masses of vegetation soil mats known as phoomdi, submerged grassland, elevated ridges and sporadic hills forming islets. The altitude varies from 768 m above sea level at the water surface to 770 m above sea level at the ridges of the lake shore, to 792.5 m at the top of the hillocks. The park is the only natural habitat of the most endangered and rarest of mammals, the brow-antlered deer (Cervus eldi eldi Mclelland), which is endemic to the region and locally known as sangai. Two sub-species i.e. C.e. thamin and C.e. siamensis are found in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Cervus eldi eldi was reported to be completely extinct in 1951, but a survey conducted under the auspices of IUCN discovered a few survivors in 1953 in a small pocket of the floating park. Consequently, the government of India declared an area of about 52 km~2 in Keibul Lamjao as a wildlife sanctuary in 1954. Subsequent conservation measures, together with the declaration of the present 40 km~2 as a national park in 1977, have yielded satisfying results.