Manipur Sangai Festival

About:

• Every year the State of Manipur celebrates the “Manipur Sangai Festival” from 21st to 30th November.
• The objective is to showcase Manipur as a world class tourism destination.
• The ‘Festival’ is named after the State animal, Sangai, the brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur.
• It started in the year 2010.
• The theme of this year’s Sangai festival is “Festival of oneness”.
• Every edition of the festival showcases the tourism potential of the state in the field of Arts & Culture, Handloom, Handicrafts, Indigenous Sports, Cuisine and Music of the state etc. 

Sangai Deer:

• Scientific Name: Rucervus eldii.
• Common Name: Sangai, Brow antlered deer, Dancing Deer.
• Population: About 260 (acc. to a joint census conducted by the Forest Department in 2016).
• Habitat and Distribution: It is found only in Keibul Lamjao National Park – the largest single mass of phumdi is in the Loktak Lake – in Manipur’s Bishnupur district.

Characteristics:

• Sangai is a medium-sized deer, with uniquely distinctive antlers, with extremely long brow tine, which form the main beam.
• The forward protruding beam appears to come out from the eyebrow, hence called the brow-antlered deer.
• It has a dark reddish-brown winter coat, which turns paler in summer.
• The deer walks on the hind surface of its pasterns with mincing hops over floating foliage, and is hence also called the Dancing Deer.

Status:

• State animal of Manipur.
• Schedule-1 of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• Endangered on IUCN Red List.

Conservation Issues:

• Sangai faces threat from steadily degenerating habitat of phumdi as a result of continuous inundation and flooding caused due to artificial reservoir.
• There is also invasion of non-native plants like Paragrass. 
• It also faces threats of diseases from the livestock, inbreeding depression and poaching.