Sirarakhong village also known as Kampha is located in Ukhurl Central Tehsil of Ukhrul district in Manipur. It is situated 28km away rom Ukhrul, which is both district & sub-district headquarter of Sirarakhong village and about 85km from Imphal which is a journey of around 2 and half hour.
The village has a total of 202 households with 1243 persons of which 620 are male while 623 are female.
Neighbouring villages of Teinem are Tungou, Lambui, Sinakeithei Tushen and Tanrui.
Lamlai is nearest town to Sirarakhong which is approximately 70km away.
The village is home to the people of Tangkhul Naga tribe. Agriculture is the primary occupation of the villagers. Sirarakhong is well known in the district for the mass production of indigenous chilli, locally called Hathei. The village hosts Hathei Festival annually to attract both domestic and international tourists.
Sirarakhong is one of the Tangkhul villages that embraced Christianity very early. For this, the villagers got access to western education right from the coming of Christian missionaries to Ukhrul district. Hundred percent of the inhabitants are Christians.
Recently, on the afternoon of April 5, 2017 at around 2 pm, an incident took place when a major portion of village including the road connecting other parts of the state, measuring around 150 ft slides down in the middle of the Sirarakhong village about 90 km north of Imphal under Litan Police station.
At least four houses were damaged and fifteen others affected and inter-state road, Mahadev-Tolloi road, was also hit by the massive landslide.
This is the first time that the state witnessed a massive landslide after weeklong rain in the state which had already witnessed a record intense rainfall after a gap of 62 years which cause widespread flooding in many low lying areas of Imphal areas including the historic Shree Shree Govindajee temple and roads leading world’s oldest living pologround here.
Photos by: Ranbir Laishram
