Manipur - Geography
Viewed from the top of a hill, the Manipur Valley looks like a circular wooded valley surrounded on all sides by ranges of hills, strongly reminding one of a huge trough.
The valley region would have been a monotonous, featureless plain but for a number of hills and mounds rising above the flat surface. The Loktak lake is an important geographic feature of the central plain area. The total area occupied by all the lakes is about 600 Sq.Km. The altitude ranges from 40m at Jiribam to as high as 2,994m at Iso Peak near Mao above MSL.
Manipur is bounded by Nagaland on north, Mizoram on south, Mynamar on east and Cachar district of Assam on west. Geographically, the state is divided into two tracts, the hills and the plains. The eastern wing of the Himalayas, specially its lower hills, constitute an important feature of the landscape of Manipur. Some of the mountains are quite high like a peak on the Nagaland-Manipur border which is more than 3,000 meters. Barak and its tributaries constituted the plains of the state. There are a number of rivers in the state. Some of them are Barak, Manipur, Iril, Jiri, Makru, Irang, Khuga, Chapki, Tizo etc. The state's capital Imphal is situated in the bank of Barak. Nearly 60% of the total area is under forest. Manipur is the abode of Shiroy Lily (Lilium Macklinae), the paradise flower which is not found elsewhere in the world. The state enjoys a typical monsoonal climate with variants, ranging from tropical to temperate conditions. The rapid changes in topography result in climatic changes in the short distances. This state receives plenty of rainfall, the average rainfall of the state is 210 cm.
Manipur lies on the eastern frontier of India. The Manipur of today is bounded on the north by a series of hills called Nagaland ; on the north-east, east and south by Burma ; on the south-west by Mizoram ; on the west and north-west by the present State of Assam It may be mentioned that Cachar was not a part of Assam until its annexation by the British. The boundary of Manipur is partly the international boundary between India and Burma. The Manipur of today lies between 23°50'N and 25°30'N Latitude and 93°10'E and 94°30'E Longitude
Manipur consists of a central valley called the Manipur Valley and ranges of hills surrounding it on all sides. The hills cover about 7,850 square miles and the valley is about 750 square miles. What we generally call the valley is in reality a plateau ; its height above the sea-level varies at different points but may be taken to be about 2,600 feet. The elevation at the Manipur State Assembly is about 2*572 ft. above the Sea-level The elevation has a great influence on the climate. The ranges of hills are higher on the north and gradually diminish m height as they reach the southern part of Manipur. The Valley itself slopes down gradually towards the south That is why all important rivers of Manipur flow from the north to the south and this is also the reason why all lakes are situated in the southern part of the valley.
The Himalayas, forming the northern boundary of India, come to the north-eastern extremity of Assam, From here, ranges of hills emerge from the Himalayas and proceeding from the south-westerly direction and then in the southerly direction, form the boundary wails of India separating this country from Myanmar. These ranges of hills while proceeding from the Himalayas diverge just to the north of Manipur : but converge again just to the south, thus enclosing the Valley of Manipur. For the sake of completeness of description, the ranges of hills continue beyond the southern boundary of Manipur. Proceeding southwards as the Mtzo Hills and then as the Arakan Yomas, they finally meet the Bay of Bengal in Burma.
The hills between the Surma Valley and the Manipur Valley do not completely seal off the latter from the rest of India. From before the beginning of the Christian era, there were some routes through these hills connecting the Manipur Valley and the Surma Valley. There were at least three routes connecting the two valleys. The northernmost of them connected Banskandi near Silchar with the place now called Jaipur in the Manipur Valley. The middle one connected Banskandi with Bishnupur in the Manipur Valley. The southern most route connected the western bend of the Barak River with Torbung, a village in the south-western part of the Manipur Valley, There were one or two routes connecting the Brahmaputra Valley with the Manipur Valley. But they were more difficult. Likewise, there were a number of routes connecting the Manipur Valley with what was later called Upper Burma.
Within the State of Manipur, there are two major river basins, viz. the Barak River Basin and the Manipur River Basin. The total water resources of the two basins have been estimated to be 1.8487 million hectare meter in the form of annual yield.
The Barak river originates from the northern hills and is joined by a number of tributaries such as Irang, Maku, Tuivai, etc. and thereafter enters Cachar District of Assam. The Manipur river basin has eight major rivers such as Imphal, Iril, Nambul, Sekmai, Chakpi, Thoubal and Khuga. All these rivers originate from the surrounding hills. Almost all the rivers in the valley area are in the mature stage and, therefore, deposit the load in the Loktak lake.
The rivers draining the Manipur Hill Area are comparatively young due to the hilly terrain through which they flow. These rivers are corrosive in nature and assume turbulent form in rainy season. Important rivers draining the western area include Maku, Barak, Jiri, Irang and Leimatak. Rivers draining the eastern part of the State include Chamu, Khunou and other short streams.
Though the area around Imphal is now all but devoid of trees, the outlying hills are still forested, and shelter such exotic birds and animals as the spotted Linshang, Blyths tragopan, the curiously named Mrs Hume's bar-backed pheasant, slow loris, Burmese pea-fowl and the beautifully marked clouded leopard, as well as numerous unclassified varieties of orchids. Probably its most unusual natural habitat is the floating mass of vegetation on Loktak Lake, south of Imphal, inhabited by the unique Sangai, the brow-antelered deer.
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