Keibul Lamjao National Park, Manipur

About Keibul Lamjao National Park in Manipur
Keibul Lamjao National Park is located at about 48 kilometers away from Imphal, in the Bishnupur district of Manipur state in north eastern India. The National Park is about 40 square kilometers in area and is the only floating park in the whole world. The Keibul Lamjao National Park forms an integral part of Loktak Lake of Manipur. The greenery of the area and the moderate climate in the Park makes it a pleasant surprise and an interesting option for a family vacation.

Loktak Lake is a fresh water lake, also called as the floating lake because of the floating decomposed plant materials called phumdis in the local language. As this National Park is the natural refuge of the endangered Manipur Eld's Deer / Brow antlered Deer and Sangai also known as the Dancing Deer, this was declared as a Sanctuary in the year 1966. Later the Sanctuary got declared as the National Park in 1977.

The National Park is a swamp which was established by Mann Sharma with floating mass of vegetation. More than two thirds of the park area is formed by Phumdis . There is a water way which passes through the park gives you access through out the year . Boats plying through the lake to the Pabot Hill in the north of the Keibul Lamjao National Park. The swamp which forms the National Park contains three hills namely Pabot, Toya and Chingjao. During monsoon season these hills give refuge to the large mammals.

Apart from the Brow antlered deer there are many other species which are found here some of them are , Hog Deer, Wild boar, Jungle cat, Fox, Bamboo Rat, flying fox, Sambar Musk shrew etc. You can also find amphibians and reptiles like Viper, Krait, Cobra, Asian Rat snake, python,Tortoise and many more. You can also find bird species in this park like Kingfisher, Hill Mynah, North Indian Black Drongos, Indian White-breasted Water hen and Crimson-breasted pied wood pecker and many more.

How to reach Keibul Lamjao National Park?
Imphal, the capital city of Manipur, is the nearest airport. The airport is connected with New Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati. These three airports are connected with almost all the cities in India. The Imphal airport is placed at the heart of the city and you can easily get cabs to reach the National Park.

Nagaland and Manipur State transport buses operate from the towns of Aizwal, Dimapur, Itanagar, Kohima, Shillong and Agartala to the National Park. These buses ply every day and the tariff per seat is Rs 75 to Rs 250. The travel in a bus from Dimapur to Imphal requires approximately 8 hours.

Imphal does not have a railway station. The nearest one to Manipur is at Dimapur which is located at about 215 kilometers and will take about 8 hours of bus journey to reach Imphal. Guwahati , is the next railway station and is located at about 414 kilometers from Imphal.
Trains to Guwahati are available from various parts of India namely, Kanyakumari , Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, New Delhi etc.