Keibul Lamjao National Park is located in which lake ?

Question

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Correct — C, Loktak. Keibul Lamjao National Park lies on Loktak Lake in Manipur, and it is not merely beside the lake — it floats on it. The park sits on a phumdi, one of the thick mats of vegetation, soil and decomposing organic matter that drift on Loktak's surface; the phumdi carrying the park covers roughly 40 square kilometres, which makes Keibul Lamjao the only floating national park in the world. Its reason for existing is the sangai (Rucervus eldii eldii), the brow-antlered 'dancing deer' that is Manipur's State animal and is found in the wild nowhere else on earth; the deer's splayed hooves are adapted to walking on the spongy, unstable phumdi surface. Loktak itself is the largest freshwater lake in North-East India, was designated a Ramsar site on 23 March 1990, and was placed on the Montreux Record on 16 June 1993 — the Ramsar list of wetlands where ecological character has changed or is likely to change, largely because the Ithai barrage altered the lake's water regime and the phumdis' natural cycle of grounding and refloating.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Dal Lake is in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. It is famous for its houseboats and its floating vegetable gardens, which makes it a tempting swap for a 'floating' answer — but there is no national park on it, and it is nowhere near Manipur.  (b) Kolleru Lake lies in Andhra Pradesh, in the low country between the Krishna and Godavari deltas. It is a major waterbird habitat and a Ramsar site, protected as a wildlife sanctuary rather than a national park, and it has no phumdis and no sangai.  (d) Wular Lake is in Jammu and Kashmir, fed by the Jhelum, and is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the subcontinent and a Ramsar site — but no national park is located on it. The distractor works only if you remember 'big freshwater lake' without remembering where.

Concept: A phumdi is a floating island: a heterogeneous mass of vegetation, soil and organic matter at various stages of decay that drifts on the water surface, thick enough in places to bear the weight of large mammals and even human dwellings. Loktak is the classic phumdi lake. Because the phumdi rises and falls with the water level and periodically grounds itself on the lake bed to take up nutrients, anything that fixes the water level — such as a barrage — thins the phumdis over time and degrades the habitat they support.

State PCS 2022 Q20 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2022 Q20 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer