GUWAHATI/IMPHAL: The Manipur government on Thursday, January 11, sounded an alert after a gooey black fluid blanketed a rivulet Wednesday night.
Residents in the State’s Imphal Valley discovered the viscous fluid, found to be combustible, hours after four villagers went missing from a hilly jungle on the border of the Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts in the strife-torn State.
“Leakage of heavy fuel from Leimakhong Power Station has been reported, leading to spillover of the discharge along streams passing through Kantosabal, Sekmai, etc. The stream meets the Imphal River downstream by flowing through Khurkhul-Loitang-Kameng-Iroisemba-Nambul,” the office of Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh said in a statement.
Leimakhong, housing the Army’s divisional headquarters, is a small town in the Kuki-majority Kangpokpi district. The State’s capital, Imphal is about 30 km downhill. The power station there is believed to have been idle for the past few months.
The State government requested all concerned to take immediate necessary action, making use of all available resources in terms of machinery, manpower, and expertise, to prevent an environmental calamity.
“Response mechanism/SoP for such events may be immediately activated,” the statement from the CMO said.
Locals said they have stopped using the water of the rivulet, otherwise their lifeline, since the black fluid was found flowing on it.
Earlier on Wednesday, four residents of Kumbi Terakhong village in the Bishnupur district, went missing after reportedly venturing out to the hills to collect firewood. They were identified as Thoudam Ingocha, 57, Ahanthem Dara 53, Oinam Romen 45, and T. Ananda, 27.
Officials could not be contacted for confirmation but locals said three bodies were recovered on Thursday. A gunfight was reported between unidentified groups on Wednesday in the area where the bodies were located.
Security forces recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition during search operations conducted in the fringe and vulnerable areas of the Imphal West, Kakching, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Imphal East, and Churachandpur districts on Wednesday.
Manipur has been restive since May 3 when ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis erupted after a tribal solidarity march on the issue of granting Scheduled Tribe status to the Meiteis. The violence claimed the lives of some 200 people and displaced 60,000 others so far.
