In Myanmar, a Lake That Sustained Generations Feels Strains<br />Oliver said that The ecology of Indawgyi Lake has been severely impacted by silt and mercury pollution from mining and overfishing, so much<br />that it’s become hard for the local fishers to make a living,<br />In the mid-1990s, Myanmar’s army captured the Hpakant jadeite mine, the world’s richest, from the Kachin<br />Independence Army, a rebel force of around 10,000 men, about 35 miles north of Indawgyi Lake.<br />By DOUG CLARKMAY 28, 2017<br />LONTON, Myanmar — Cresting a mountain pass on a freshly bulldozed road, Indawgyi Lake and its valley appear below, pastoral and calm.<br />Increasing commercialization of the region’s economy also led to the expansion of illegal gold mines in the mountains above Indawgyi Lake.<br />These migrants established five villages and introduced fishing techniques like small-gauge gillnets<br />and electroshock fishing that began depleting the lake’s fish stocks.<br />But despite the encircling mountains and buffering remoteness, Indawgyi Lake is straining under many of the same environmental<br />and conflict-related challenges that are stressing the fragile nation.<br />For centuries, the indigenous Kachin people here in Myanmar’s remote north planted rice when the lake flooded their fields during the monsoon, fished its waters<br />and hunted its wetlands and the surrounding mountains.
