Manipur - The Barak Waterfall

A JOURNEY TO ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WATERFALLS IN THE STATE TO EXPERIENCE THE MAGIC OF NATURE IN ITS PRISTINE FORM

- Paonam Birjeet

TAMENGLONG IS a hilly district in the Manipur with a diverse and rich population of flora and fauna and beautiful landscape. It is 157 km from the capital Imphal and it takes 5 hours to reach Tamenglong District headquarters.

It was in March 2018 that I traveled to Barak Waterfall in Tamenglong along with nine friends. The tour was a part of the annual adventure programme of Wildlife and Habitat Protection Society (WAHPS) where I serve as an active member for the past few years. We are a group of young people working on the conservation of a semi-urban forest Punsilok at the Langol hill range. We spent three nights and four days at Barak Waterfall exploring its beauty under the open sky.

From Imphal, we boarded a passenger vehicle to Tamenglong and arrived at our local guide’s home. Kennedy Kamie a very friendly person from Tamenglong Headquarters, has been our local guide for most of our tours across Tamenglong. We had lunch at his home and then set out for the waterfall in a Bolero driven by him. Barak Waterfall is 30 km away from Tamenglong town. We reached the Bamgaijang village inhibited by Kabui ethnic people from where we hired two canoes. To ferry us to the waterfall site we paid Rs 500 per canoe.

The route to Barak Waterfall on a canoe made us realize that we were traveling in a once thick forest cut in the middle by a flowing river. On either side of the canoe, the view was breathtaking. We also sighted some beautiful species of birds along the way.

As our journey progressed, the camaraderie amongst us grew as we shared many thoughts along the way. After about one and a half hours, we arrived at a place where the boats could not proceed further. We got down from the canoes with all our belongings; it was already 6 pm and the night had set in. The two boatmen left for their home.