Sangai Festival of Manipur

About the festival-

• Labelled as the grandest festival in the state, the Manipur Sangai Festival helps in promoting Manipur as a world-class tourism destination. 
• The festival is organised by Manipur Tourism Department every year from 21 to 30 November.
• Even though many editions of this Festival has been celebrated over the past few years with the name of Tourism Festival, since 2010 this has been renamed as the Sangai Festival to stage the uniqueness of the shy and gentle brow-antlered deer popularly known as the Sangai, a regional name given to this rare species of deer. 
• As this festival is being celebrated to promote Manipur as a world class tourism destination, it showcases the states contributions to art and culture, handloom, handicrafts, fine arts, indigenous sports, cuisine, music and adventure sports, as well as the natural environment.

About the Sangai-

• The sangai is an endemic and endangered subspecies of Eld’s deer found only in Manipur, India.  
• It is also the state animal of Manipur.
• Its common English name is Manipur brow-antlered deer or Eld’s deer and the scientific name is Rucervus eldii eldii. 
• Its original natural habitat is the floating marshy grasslands of the Keibul Lamjao National Park(the only floating National Park in the world), located in the southern parts of the Loktak Lake, which is the largest freshwater lake in eastern India.