Deepor Beel, a freshwater lake on the outskirts of Guwahati city, is a unique wetland eco-system. The beel, a Ramsar site and a Bird Sanctuary, covers an area of about 900 hectares. It harbours a large number of resident as well as winter migratory birds. Herds of elephants from the adjacent reserve forests regularly visits the lake, which forms part an elephant corridor, in search of fodder including the plant Euryale ferox Salis, locally known as Makhana or Nikori. Increasing biotic pressure such as unregulated fishing, stone qurraying inside the beel eco-system, siltation due to cutting down of the nearby hills, cement structure, dumping of Guwahati's municipal solid waste on the fringes of the lake have posed grave conservation threat to this nature's wonder. Besides, elephants also suffer casualty due to train-hit while crossing the railway line to visit the lake.