Nourished by numerous rivers and speckled with pictorial islands around it, Loktak Lake in Manipur is a huge and complex body of water situated to the south of Imphal. The Loktak Lake is a home to a unique community of fishermen who live on large rafts made of reeds. Rare and endangered sangai, brow-antlered "dancing deer, live on the floating vegetation that covers much of the lake, sharing their habitat with other species including the hog deer from Imphal, which attracts a host of waterfowl and wandering birds between November and March.
On the more populated western shore of Loktak, the small town of Moirang is the traditional centre of Meithei culture, with a temple devoted to the pre-hindu deity, Thangjing. In April 1944, the Indian national army under Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose fought alongside the Japanese against the British Indian Army for independence. A memorial and museum commemorating the event has been erected.
