Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually addressed Manipur’s Sangai Festival on its concluding day. 

The PM said that festivals like Sangai boost the local economy, and attract investors as well as industries. 

Sangai Festival

• Every year, Manipur celebrates the Sangai Festival from November 21-30.

• The festival is named after the state animal, Sangai, the brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur.

• It started in the year 2010 and has grown into a big platform for Manipur to showcase its rich tradition and culture to the world. 

• The festival is labelled as the grandest festival of the state today and helps promote Manipur as a world class tourism destination. 

• Every edition of the festival showcases the tourism potential of the state in the field of arts & culture, handloom, handicrafts, indigenous sports, cuisine, music and adventure sports of the state,  etc.

Manipur’s Brow-Antlered Deer

• Manipur’s brow-antlered deer or Sangai (Rucervus eldii eldii) is one of the most threatened cervids of India found in one, single, isolated population. 

• It is listed as ‘Endangered’ in IUCN Red List and Schedule I of the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. 

• Sangai is much loved and revered by the people of Manipur and it symbolises a sacred link between human and the spirit of nature.

• Sangai is one of the three sub-species of Eld’s deer found in South and Southeast Asia. 

• It has adapted itself to a unique habitat of the floating meadows or phumdi at Keibul Lamjao National Park (KLNP), a marked difference from the other two.

• Once distributed throughout the Manipur state, Sangai is now restricted to the 40 sq km area park and is numbered less than 100 adult individuals in the wild making it vulnerable to extinction.

• There has been an increased positive trend in the population through years of intensive conservation effort. However threats still prevail that could prove highly detrimental for its survival.

Some of the threats are:

• Single, isolated and small population.

• Highly inbred and low genetic diversity.

• Highly specialised and restricted habitat.

• High anthropogenic pressure in terms of biomass extraction.

• Change in vegetation composition of the Park.

• Lack of space and connectivity for recolonisation.

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