Geo-environmental Studies of Manipur River Basin

The problems of the environmental management in river basins are treated as periphery problems. Though, these areas are often included in great reserves of natural resources of the nation, their contribution to the main land is quite often in terms of forest, water, wildlife, tourism and leisure industries. Forest and forest eco-systems of north-east India in general and Manipur in particular, are under severe pressures, both from biotic and abiotic factors. The main reasons for it include population explosion, encroachments on forest lands, loss of forest cover for other non-forest uses, shifting cultivation , and degradation caused by illicit felling, lopping for fuel wood forest and fodder, removal of forest cover for litter, forest fires, etc. With rich bio-diversity of Manipur, its conservation now-a-days has become a major challenge which leads to its forest fragmentation. Four most important general factors, viz. shifting cultivation, human population pressure, industrial logging and weak government policies have been studied.