The river was waist deep ten days back, now we can see the ground floor of the river.
Earlier, we use to swim in the River and we even fear to cross the river as it was vast. Now due to soil erosion, there is no water in the river and we even erect wooden post to stop the erosion of the river bank spoke locals of Brahmapur Bheigapati Leikai.
In other to save river a festival of music is going to take place at the river bank of Singjamei Thokchom Leikai opposite Brahmapur Bheigapati Leikai, a temporary pole bridge is being built connecting the two locals separated by Imphal River. Entertainment, exhibition, business, food stalls etc are some of the highlights of the music festival that is going to take place on 25th March, 2015.
A cycle rally took off participated by environment enthusiasts carrying message and slogans on saving the River. “Keep your river bank clean, make your own Garbage”, “Save the River, you are Responsible”, “Do not blame Government, make your own Garbage, you are Responsible”, “Skip the Plastic Bag, Save the River” were some of the slogan of today’s bicycle rally participated by Pedal Attack’, band members of Dirty Strike band, and environment conscious individuals.
The cycle rally started from Singjamei Thokchom Leikai and crosses the Singjamei Bridge, took the Bhamon Leikai roads heading towards Checkon and through Nagamapal and Khwairamband Bazar and back to the river bank at Singjamei Thokchom leikai where a concert in the theme Save the River is going to take place.
Fishermen use to catch a lot of fishes like ngasep, ngashik etc. in early times. Now ngasep fish has disappeared from the river, even after flood we cannot see the fish neither the fisherman catches a single ngasep except for nylon ngamu and phabou nga.
“The river was waist deep ten days back, now we can see the ground floor of the river. We use water for our daily uses. It we dig deep the river, we can have water in the river like in Lilong Arapti area the river is wide and deep and there is plenty of water all the time.
We learnt from our forefather that every ten years the kings use to clean and dig the river ‘maril tengba nowadays the initiative is seldom seen
Now a variety of grass that grows oversize is becoming a problem as it is hard to burn and if cut down it grows in few days.
Due to consistent soil erosion the river has minimized into the size of a drain. If we dig the river from Mahabali to Singjamei Bridge it will be good.
We use to play in the sands after we swim in river. They also caught 15 kg big rice. Now it seems we have lost our river”, expressed Guneshwor, Chetan, Phantom, Deepak and Lallu who came to support the cause.
The riverbank music festival, which will be located at the bank of the Imphal River which runs through the heart of the Imphal city. The festival aim to bring awareness to save the river bank from encroachment, and dumping of garbage.
