In a recent initiative aimed at restoring degraded areas and enhancing the livelihoods of local communities around the Barak watershed, the Senapati Forest Division in Manipur conducted a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercise in Saranamai village. This effort involved mapping resources, land use patterns, and executing a SWOT analysis to gather baseline data, which will inform a detailed action plan under the new CAMPA scheme from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Plans are in place to extend this exercise to all villages within the Barak watershed area in the future.
The Barak River is crucial for its ecological, hydrological, environmental, religious, cultural, and economic significance in the Senapati District. Originating from Liyai Khullen village, it flows through Manipur, reaching the lower Assam plains and eventually merging with the Bay of Bengal as the Meghana River in Bangladesh. The Barak basin, part of the Ganga-Brahmaputra river system, ranks as the second largest basin in North-East India and is fed by several tributaries, including the Makru, Irang, and Tuivai.
Despite its significance, the Barak basin is currently facing numerous threats, such as forest fires, flooding, riverbank erosion, deforestation, degradation from shifting cultivation practices, soil erosion in the catchment areas, and landslides, compounded by a lack of awareness amongst the populace. In response to these challenges, there is a pressing need for an integrated, multi-tiered approach that emphasizes forestry interventions to rejuvenate the river and its watershed effectively.
