Indawgyi Wildlife Sanctuary

Indawgyi Wildlife Sanctuary Ramsar Site comprises Indawgyi Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake in Myanmar, and surrounding lowlands which have mostly been converted to wet rice agriculture. The Lake plays a role in flood control and provides regionally important habitats to at least 20,000 migratory and resident waterbirds. These include globally threatened birds such as the vulnerable lesser adjutant (Leptoptilosjavanicus), sarus crane (Grusantigone) and wood snipe (Gallinagonemoricola). The Site is home to globally threatened mammals such as the endangered hog deer (Axis porcinus) and Shortridge’slangur (Trachypithecusshortridgei), and the vulnerable eastern hoolock gibbon (Hoolockleuconedys). It also hosts five species of globally threatened chelonians, of which three are endangered: the Asian brown tortoise (Manouriaemys), Burmese peacock softshell turtle (Nilssoniaformosa), and the yellow tortoise (Indotestudoelongata). Indawgyi Lake has a high diversity of fish, including seven species recently discovered and endemic to the Site. The 30,000 people living in 16 villages around the lake basin depend on a mixture of rice farming and fishing for their livelihoods. The annual festival held in March at the ShweMyintZu Pagoda on the west side of the lake attracts tens of thousands of Buddhist pilgrims.